piles 1 of 3

noun (1)

plural of pile
1
as in stacks
a quantity of things thrown or stacked on one another a large pile of newspapers that needed to be disposed of

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in loads
a considerable amount a job that paid piles of money

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

piles

2 of 3

noun (2)

plural of pile
1
as in furs
a soft airy substance or covering the lush pile of the carpeting

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2
as in wools
the hairy covering of a mammal especially when fine, soft, and thick a dog with such a dense pile that he never minded the cold

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piles

3 of 3

verb

present tense third-person singular of pile
1
as in heaps
to lay or throw on top of one another piled all the clothes on the chair before putting them away

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in huddles
to gather into a closely packed group the kids piled into the car

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of piles
Noun
Keep your grass short and clear out leaf litter and brush piles, since ticks wait in tall, damp growth. — Ryan Brennan, Kansas City Star, 2 July 2026 Rake up leaf litter and clear brush piles, which hold the moisture ticks depend on. — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 2 July 2026 What was left of other buildings were buried under piles of their own debris. — Osmary Hernández, CNN Money, 27 June 2026 This could include sniffing around more than usual or barking and growling at odd places like piles of leaves. — Ashley Chalmers, The Spruce, 3 July 2026 Mouse poop is usually left in a trail along the rodent's path, while guano is found in piles under roosting spots. — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 1 July 2026 With the first steel piles officially in the ground, the countdown to the plant’s 2029 operational debut is underway. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 2 July 2026 The alternating placements of the piles/objects are very precise, which creates a series of chicanes, indicating they are not intended as obstructions but rather to prevent rapid ingress and egress by any vehicle toward the tunnels. — Benjamin Weinthal, FOXNews.com, 3 July 2026 Idling trucks, sandbag piles and large metal trailers stationed around a massive cold storage facility that burned for days in Boyle Heights signaled that the work to clean up millions of pounds of spoiled food and burned debris had begun Friday morning. — Jazmin Alvarado, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2026
Verb
The dirty laundry never piles up, nor does the ready-to-fold pile. — Tessa Cooper, The Spruce, 30 June 2026 Blackwood’s absence piles it on with several layers of awful. — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 4 Jan. 2026 His intervention piles fresh pressure on the prime minister. — Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 9 Feb. 2026 But the cleanups did remove the garbage that piles up along the San Juan, robbing the gillagers of a reliable source of income. — Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026 But when snow piles up in powdery white masses, Arizonans can't resist the opportunity to play in it. — Michael Salerno, AZCentral.com, 19 Feb. 2026 The result piles more pressure on Starmer, the least popular prime minister since records began, according to some polls. — Alexander Smith, NBC news, 27 Feb. 2026 Instead of asking whether existing programs are delivering results, Congress piles new spending and new funding streams onto an already fragmented system. — Andy Harris, Baltimore Sun, 4 July 2026 More specifically — and without spoiling a story that piles the twists as high as the corpses — Pine's an ex-British soldier pulled from his porter duties and recruited to surveil a ruthless arms dealer, Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) staying at the hotel. — Matt Cabral, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for piles
  1. stacks
  2. loads
  3. furs
  4. wools
  5. huddles
  6. mounds
  7. tons
  8. coats
Noun
  • Photos apparently taken by the men themselves show wads of cash on the seat of a car, in a plastic bag and in stacks on the floor of a location in New York.
    — Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 1 July 2026
  • Long-life system design Next Hydrogen expects the electrolyzer stacks to operate for approximately 80,000 hours.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 30 June 2026
Definition of stacks
Noun
  • Double bag any heavy trash bags or loads that contain a lot of wet food to prevent rips and leaks.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 3 July 2026
  • Battery systems could support those loads alongside renewable generation or other power sources.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 2 July 2026
Definition of loads
Noun
  • The attractive, mid-30s crowd seemed to be a mix of friends and couples donning beards, tattoos, red lips, and furs worn with sneakers.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 June 2026
  • No one wanted to stand behind the commanding warriors, draped in blankets and furs, brass hoops in their earlobes, medals and wampum on their strong chests, silver armbands glinting in the light.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 May 2026
Definition of furs
Noun
  • Han works with Japanese fabrics, Irish linens and Scottish wools to create simple, understated and versatile silhouettes, with everything made in small factories in London.
    — Alex Wynne, Footwear News, 2 July 2026
  • Although the word cashmere is sometimes incorrectly applied to extremely soft wools, only the product of the cashmere goat is true cashmere.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Mar. 2026
Definition of wools
Verb
  • An engineer overhears a sales call where a partner is requesting a specific feature and immediately huddles with the salesperson once the line clicks shut.
    — Vikram Joshi, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
  • The boiler is broken, so Kuhner huddles by a small space heater in his office in the winter.
    — Emma Green, New Yorker, 17 Apr. 2026
Definition of huddles
Noun
  • Helicopter flyovers of Big Cypress National Preserve identified remote indigenous mounds, to this day largely unexplored.
    — Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 June 2026
  • Archaeologists have determined the mounds served ceremonial, spiritual and burial functions, though many details of their cultural significance remain a mystery.
    — Joe Yogerst, CNN Money, 27 June 2026
Definition of mounds
Noun
  • Having a few good friends can be more meaningful than having tons.
    — Joy Harden Bradford, AJC.com, 2 July 2026
  • There are tons of other great Spanx deals to shop over the Fourth of July weekend.
    — Olivia Dubyak, Travel + Leisure, 1 July 2026
Definition of tons
Noun
  • Simply applying a couple of coats of stain can safeguard your deck for years to come, but this doesn't mean that the stain will last forever.
    — Timothy Dale, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 July 2026
  • The Cat Fanciers' Association sorts cat coats into both color and pattern.
    — Madeline Gunderson, USA Today, 5 July 2026
Definition of coats

Browse Nearby Words

piled (up)
piles
piles (up)
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Cite this Entry

“Piles.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/piles. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on piles

Nglish: Translation of piles for Spanish Speakers

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