Synonyms for decay
- blight
- corrosion
- decomposition
- degeneration
- deterioration
- disintegration
- disrepair
- extinction
- impairment
- rot
- adulteration
- atrophy
- caries
- consumption
- crumbling
- decadence
- decline
- decrease
- decrepitude
- degeneracy
- depreciation
- dilapidation
- dissolution
- downfall
- dying
- fading
- failing
- gangrene
- mortification
- perishing
- putrefaction
- putrescence
- putridity
- putridness
- rotting
- ruin
- ruination
- rust
- senescence
- spoilage
- spoilation
- wasting
- withering
- wasting away
Antonyms for decay
- building
- development
- growth
- improvement
- ascent
- construction
- increase
- morality
- rise
- flourish
- germination
- ripening
- strength
- strengthening
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR DECAY
She was aware of the creeping fret, the poisons and obstructions of decay.
To get it all you must live there, to be interpenetrated by its glory of decay.
Old age and decay, bad enough in themselves, we intensify by our habits of mind.
Will you have nothing to remember him by but his ruin and decay?
Is the something else, the decay of dead citizens in the vaults below?
Martin thought the inconsistency a part of his weakness and decay.
When Tom Pembroke knew it best, its old age and decay had well set in.
Of its own decay the old morality has fallen in a confusion of ruin.
The surveyor of Hartwell also notes that the "tenements there be in decay."
It had shrunk up in its decay, and the heap it formed was quite small.
WORD ORIGIN
late 15c., "to decrease," from Anglo-French decair, Old North French decair (Old French decheoir, 12c., Modern French déchoir) "to fall, set (of the sun), weaken, decline, decay," from Vulgar Latin *decadere "to fall off," from de- (see de-) + Latin cadere "to fall" (see case (n.1)). Meaning "decline, deteriorate" is c.1500; that of "to decompose, rot" is from 1570s. Related: Decayed; decaying.