decay

1. 1.

   lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current

   “the particles disintegrated during the nuclear fission process”

   Synonymsdisintegratedecompose

   Broaderchange integrity

   physics

2. 2.

   fall into decay or ruin

   “The unoccupied house started to decay”

   Synonymscrumbledilapidate

   Broaderchange

   Narrowerdeterioratecorrodeweathererodewiltruinbreak
3. 3.

   undergo decay or decomposition

   “The body started to decay and needed to be cremated”

   Broaderchange

   Narrowerdecomposespoilputrefydeliquesce

Other forms of decay

plural

decays·

past tense

decayed·

present participle

decaying·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about decay

What does decay mean?

decay means "the process of gradually becoming inferior". That is the primary sense; the word has 8 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in decay?

decay has 2 syllables: de-cay. The stress falls on "cay". In IPA it is /dɪˈkeɪ/.

What is another word for decay?

Close synonyms include decline, decomposition, radioactive decay, disintegration, disintegrate. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is decay a common word?

decay is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with decay?

13 words rhyme with decay. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.