'Expired' or 'Passed away'?

When someone dies, do we say they expired or passed away?

Does the word expired give any more respect when used? Or less respect than passed away?

Solution 1:

Pass away is a common, and respectful, euphemism for die. Expire has a jokey kind of connotation and needs to be used with care.

Solution 2:

As others have pointed out, "passed away" is a euphemism.

Its use is not so much about respect for the dead, but about consideration for the bereaved. It suggests that the person has gone to heaven (or whatever other afterlife you care to imagine).

We also use "gone to a better place", and we wish that the deceased "rest in peace". We sometimes see "eternal sleep".

Hence we avoid reminding the bereaved of the blunt finality of death, and concentrate on an analogy with something more comforting.

"Expired" is a very blunt direct term for death, which emphasises its finality and gives no hint of a continuation in the afterlife.

Use the euphemisms in situations where you want to be sensitive to the feelings of people who loved the deceased.

Solution 3:

Expire might have literary or technical usage as in:

Ophelia expires in Act IV of Hamlet.
The patient expired early this morning

but pass away is safe to use with a sense of "respect"

Solution 4:

"Pass away" does not convey any meaning other than "die", while "Expire", in my opinion equals "expiration of life" or "a person coming to an end" in this context.

With this perspective, "pass away" does not include any synonyms of "death", "die", "end of life" or "end". It is a euphemism.

In usage, you'd be inclined to avoid directly mentioning "death" or "end", to sound more respectful. This is where "pass away" as a euphemism, seems appropriate to be used with a sense of respect.