EBBING Synonyms: 186 Similar and Opposite Words

ebbing 1 of 3

noun

as in deterioration

a gradual sinking and wasting away of mind or body seniors who stay active can keep at bay some of the inevitable ebbing of the memory that comes with advanced years

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

ebbing

2 of 3

adjective

as in waning

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Dissimilar Words

ebbing

3 of 3

verb

present participle of ebb

as in deteriorating

to become worse or of less value the fortunes of the town slowly ebbed as factory after textile factory closed

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in subsiding

to grow less in scope or intensity especially gradually the howling winds ebbed as the hurricane moved into the interior

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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 ebbing

Noun

As forcible mobilisation grows to fill Ukraine’s ebbing ranks, so will anger at the presidency and military. — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 19 Aug. 2026 What's more, CEOs say there are no signs of consumer demand ebbing. — Doug Gollan, Forbes.com, 15 May 2026 Perplexed, Smith texted her friend Jackie Caplan-Auerbach to see if the Western Washington University seismologist might know if this odd ebbing and flowing could be the result of a nearby landslide. — Megan I. Gannon, Scientific American, 6 May 2026 Those who feel their power ebbing, however, may bluster and bellow. — David Frum, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2026 Any ebbing of drone strikes could be deceptive, with Iran amassing them for another swarming assault. — Mikhail Alexseev, Twin Cities, 22 Mar. 2026 In that period, with the Covid pandemic ebbing, thousands were detained and sent home. — Dan Gooding, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2025

Verb

The autocracies are surging, and democracies ebbing. — Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Atlantic, 28 June 2026 That number has fluctuated from a high of 115,000 in May to a low of about 16,000 on the day before this column was published, ebbing and flowing as tickets were purchased, new batches were released and FIFA (maybe) pulled back others. — Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico.com, 10 June 2026 The emergency itself seems to be ebbing. — Andre Mouchard, Oc Register, 2 June 2026 An outbreak forced farmers and commercial producers to slaughter entire broods of egg-laying hens, but ebbing cases in the second half of last year helped restore egg supplies, said Mark Jordan, the executive director of agricultural research firm LEAP Market Analytics. — ABC News, 1 Apr. 2026 The effects of its costly price war with T-Mobile seem to be ebbing. — Josh Brown,sean Russo, CNBC, 30 Mar. 2026 They wed in September 2021, in the ebbing months of the pandemic. — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 16 Jan. 2026 The state’s political appetite to keep transitioning away from oil has been clearly ebbing as residents balk at the cost of everything in California, most notably the chronically high cost of gasoline and the periodic spikes during a hiccup in production. — Tom Philp, Mercury News, 8 Jan. 2026 Daylight was ebbing as rescuers set up. — Alan Gionet, CBS News, 8 Jan. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for ebbing

Noun

Unlike Netflix, Disney is wrestling with the ongoing deterioration of linear TV.

— Todd Spangler, Variety, 16 Oct. 2026
That creates a different situation when a condition begins with something a resident or guest did rather than deterioration of the building or a maintenance issue.

— Emma Clapp, Miami Herald, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of deterioration

Verb

Authorities warned against hiking this route this time of year due to deteriorating conditions and the onset of winter weather.

— Tony Briscoe, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2026
Malaysia on Friday ordered hundreds of schools closed in several states because of deteriorating air quality.

— ABC News, ABC News, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of deteriorating

Verb

Multiple Kelvin waves These waves can bring elevated sea levels for weeks at a time, eventually subsiding before the next wave hits.

— Zoe Mintz, CBS News, 6 Sep. 2026
Two of them coincide with areas where satellite radar shows that the ground is actively subsiding.

— Nolan Roth, Scientific American, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of subsiding

Noun

The networks learn to recognize patterns by strengthening and weakening connections between nodes in response to training data.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 12 Oct. 2026
Under the previous administration, Brazil’s audiovisual industry suffered from the closure of the Ministry of Culture, the suspension of the Audiovisual Sector Fund, the weakening of cultural institutions, and allegations of censorship.

— Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 10 Oct. 2026

Definition of weakening

Verb

By Saturday night, Long Beach reported that seawater had entered homes and into streets, with the city’s Peninsula neighborhood being hard hit, and its boardwalk crumbling.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2026
The hotel’s journey from crumbling Presbyterian church to Silver Lake hotspot is more interesting, a soap opera that involves government red tape, some nuns and Katy Perry.

— Mickey Rapkin, HollywoodReporter, 10 Oct. 2026

Definition of crumbling

Verb

One person, by the way, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia , came out Thursday and said that CoreWeave is fine, doesn't need help — and, in fact, the company's cost of capital is actually decreasing because Nvidia chips more than hold their value.

— Jim Cramer, CNBC, 15 Oct. 2026
Experts say forever chemicals can have a major impact on your health, compromising immunity, decreasing fertility, causing developmental delays in children and increasing the risk of certain kinds of cancers.

— WCCO Staff, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of decreasing

Noun

But the eleventh-hour blitz of No On 3 ads that Keep Florida Clean funded, warning of the greed of Big Weed, inflamed voters’ private worries of societal decay.

— Christopher Spata, Miami Herald, 17 Oct. 2026
The commercial benchmark, by comparison, showed continuous performance decay during testing.

— Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 17 Oct. 2026

Definition of decay

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Style

“Ebbing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ebbing. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of ebbing

noun

adjective

verb

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