Proper usage of "passed" vs "passed away"

Depending on context either seems acceptable to me.

Clearly one shouldn't use passed where there could be ambiguity between death, and saying that someone simply passed by. And indeed when notifying someone of a death for the first time, passed, as in Fred passed on Thursday, does seem to carry ambiguity even though the listener may have been well aware of Fred's impending death.

Passed away offers more clarity.

But remarks, e.g. at a funeral, such as The entire community is grieved at his passing are not new and seem quite appropriate to me, when the fact of a person's death is known.

Regardless, I agree with AM Hemi - the vernacular these days seems to be to drop the 'away' from the phrase and I can't seem to figure out how this trend came about. According to some quick research, forum answers as late as 2012 say that "passed" may be regional to the American South and "passed away" is still the most common American usage, so it must have changed quite recently.

I think the correct answer is "he died". Passing or passing away is a new trend since the 70's (according to William Bradford), perhaps as a more gentle way to indicate death. I agree that "passing" is ambiguous.

Use of the word "passed" (i.e. he passed last night) is simply lazy and worse yet, sloppy. Besides, I always think of what we usually use pass for, as in pass gas. While the use of "pass" instead of passed away or died is becoming commonplace, even on the news, I and others will persist in our objections. It simply does not sound right.