to die of
520
1.1
- phrasal verb
- /daɪ ʌv/
:
morir de
- And he died of pneumonia.
- die of cancer
- die of AIDS
- die of a disease
And so yes, in fact, some people could die of a broken heart.
- And so yes, in fact, some people could die of a broken heart.
- And they're essentially left to die of starvation and thirst.
- What are the relatives dying of and at what age?
- And my mother died of a heart attack, which was standard.
- Dawn Sturgis died of Novichok in Salisbury.
- The last child born to the family had died of pneumonia, but Juan survived.
- And but just what, two years later, he died of cancer?
- And I think people need to realize far more people die of cold than heat.
- Great, now I'm going to die of starvation down here.
- One of the Montreal players, Joe Hall, dies of the flu four days later.
- They're not so likely to die of diarrhea, malaria, HIV.
- And then in real life, he's probably dying of the plague.
Examples
-
If that goes, is it possible that she would die of a broken heart?
Fiction book (1991) -
We will never know; he died of cancer on 8 July 1990.
Academic text (1991) -
And so yes, in fact, some people could die of a broken heart.
-
And my mother died of a heart attack, which was standard.
-
And but just what, two years later, he died of cancer?
-
You know, his son Beau died of brain cancer.
-
We've all known people have died of cancer or have had cancer.
-
Her father, Vince, died of COVID five days later.
-
She died of breast cancer.
-
He died of pneumonia after a long battle with the disease.
Synonyms
121
6.0
To die suddenly or violently, often in large numbers
52
8.4
Die suddenly, often from shock or extreme tiredness
8
3.8
To die peacefully in a gentle, respectful way
Die because of an accident, violence, or disaster
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
die + of
The meaning 'to pass away as a result of a specified cause' is directly derived from 'die' (to cease living) combined with the preposition 'of' marking cause. This cause-marking construction is common cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'morir de', French 'mourir de'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Die of gives a simple picture: die is the action and of shows the cause, as when someone dies of hunger or disease. So, it means 'to die because of' something.