Perished

Perished is the past tense and past participle of perish. In standard usage, perish means to die, especially in a sudden, violent, or untimely way, or to cease to exist through destruction. It can describe people who died in an accident or catastrophe, animals killed in danger, or objects destroyed by fire or decay. The term can also denote extinction or disappearance of something that once existed, though this sense is less common in everyday speech.

Etymology traces perished to Old French perir, from Latin perire meaning to go completely, to be lost. The form has been part of English since the Middle Ages, retaining associations with loss, ruin, and finality.

Usage notes and tone help distinguish perished from died. In modern journalism, obituaries, and disaster reporting, perished is common when describing deaths in events like floods, fires, or accidents, and it can convey a solemn or formal tone. In everyday conversation, died is more ordinary and direct. Perished can also appear in idiomatic expressions such as “perish the thought,” which is considered archaic or humorous in contemporary speech.

Related terms include perishable, meaning likely to decay or spoil, and perishability, which describe how quickly something may lose quality or existence. The word also appears in discussions of extinction, loss, and the eventual end of institutions, cultures, or ecosystems.