decedent
Americannoun
-
decedents
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of decedent
1590–1600; < Latin dēcēdent- (stem of dēcēdēns ) departing, withdrawing, present participle of dēcēdere. See decease, -ent
Explanation
A decedent is someone who has died. Decedents are deceased. Every language has ways to avoid saying the dead guy, and English has two that come from the same root: deceased, a formal and impersonal way of designating one recently departed, and decedent, the version preferred when a lawyer is in the room. Both words are from Latin decedere, meaning "to die." Decedents include all dead people, no matter when they died. Someone who died an hour ago is a decedent as well as someone who died 300 years ago.
Vocabulary lists containing decedent
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A will cannot override a previously recorded life estate, since the decedent no longer holds full ownership of the property at the time of death.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 3, 2026
“We are specifically looking to identify the white male adult decedent, who is between the ages of 35 and 40, approximately 6’ and 200# with short brown hair and facial hair,” the statement said.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2025
"The team that did the xenotransplant had several theories about why the first decedent was having more issues, but multiomics helped to define the complications, and may be used to counter them moving forward."
From Science Daily ● May 21, 2024
But these so-called decedent models come with their own challenges: they usually involve just one person and usually only last for days to weeks.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 11, 2023
It concerned not the decedent but his daughter.
From The Paliser case by Edgar Saltus
The federal law sets up a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items, including funerary and sacred objects, to tribes and direct decedents of the people they belonged to.
From Seattle Times ● May 29, 2024
The other new paper, published in Nature Medicine, featured a "multiomics" analysis of pig hearts and surrounding human cells in decedents.
From Science Daily ● May 21, 2024
All decedents located at the Colorado funeral home were removed on 13 October and transported to the El Paso County Coroner's Office.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2023
It is expected to take several weeks to identify the decedents.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2023
Surprisingly, however, a random sample of 747 death notices published in Salt Lake City, Utah, newspapers during 1977 indicated that 46 percent of the decedents surveyed died within the three- month period following their birthdays.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
