Expiration

//ˌɛk.spəˈɹeɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act, process, or instance of expiring.; The act or process of breathing out, or forcing air from the lungs through the nose or mouth. uncountable

    "Holonym: respiration"

  2. 2
    the act of expelling air from the lungs wordnet
  3. 3
    An act, process, or instance of expiring.; A single outward breath. countable

    "labored expirations"

  4. 4
    euphemistic expressions for death wordnet
  5. 5
    An act, process, or instance of expiring.; Other similar release of volatile matter. countable, uncountable
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    a coming to an end of a contract period wordnet
  2. 7
    An act, process, or instance of expiring.; The last emission of breath; thus, synonym of death. countable, euphemistic, uncountable
  3. 8
    An act, process, or instance of expiring.; Any other (metaphorically comparable) cessation, extinction, or ending. countable, uncountable

    "expiration date"

  4. 9
    An act, process, or instance of expiring.; That which is produced by breathing out, as a sound. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
exhalationterminationbreathingexhalationexitpassing

Example

More examples

"This milk's expiration date has come and gone!"

Etymology

From Middle English expiracioun, exspiracioun (“vapor, breath”), from Latin expīrātiōnem, exspīrātiōnem, accusative singular of expīrātiō, exspīrātiō. By surface analysis, expire + -ation.

Related phrases

expiration dateexpiration timetime until expiration

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.