What does expire mean?
To expire is to come to an end after reaching a set limit, most commonly said of things with a defined term of validity: passports, contracts, warranties, coupons, and subscriptions all expire when their allotted time runs out. Once something has expired it is no longer valid, effective, or usable. The verb derives from Latin roots meaning "to breathe out," and this origin survives in a second, more literary sense: to expire can mean to die — to breathe one's final breath. That figurative use is now rare outside literature, law, and historical writing, but it lends the word a quiet gravity. In daily life, expire is indispensable and neutral in tone: milk cartons carry expiration dates, domain names lapse when they expire, and offers expire at midnight. It pairs naturally with nouns of limited duration and appears constantly in legal, commercial, and administrative language. Its derivatives include expiration, expiry, and expired, making its family as practical as it is ancient in lineage.
To come to an end, especially of a fixed period of validity, as with a document, contract, subscription, or offer.
"My gym membership expires at the end of the month."
This is by far the dominant modern sense, used in both formal and everyday contexts.
To die; to breathe one's last breath.
"After hours of suffering, the wounded knight finally expired."
A literary or archaic sense, now largely confined to fiction, legal phrasing, and historical narrative.
"Expire" literally comes from Latin words meaning "to breathe out" — which is why dying was once described as expiring your very last breath.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of expire
The verb "expire" entered English in the early 15th century from Old French "expirer," itself drawn from Latin "expirare" (later spelled "exspirare"), a compound of "ex-" meaning "out" and "spirare" meaning "to breathe." Its original sense was therefore literally "to breathe out," whether in ordinary respiration or in the final exhalation that ends life, which gave rise to the meaning "to die." By extension, anything whose life or term ran out came to be said to expire, producing the modern dominant sense of validity coming to an end. The same Latin root "spirare" underlies a whole family of English words, including "respire," "inspire," "consipre"'s relative "conspire," and "spirit" itself.
Related word forms
How expire is actually used
In everyday modern usage, "expire" almost always refers to the ending of a time-limited thing — documents, offers, subscriptions, food dates — and carries a neutral register suitable for both formal and informal contexts. The sense meaning "to die" survives mainly in literary, legal, or deliberately archaic prose. In British English, the noun form "expiry" is standard for the date something ends, whereas American English typically uses "expiration" or simply "expiration date."
Easily confused with expire
"Expire" in its literal breathing sense means to breathe out (the last breath), while "exhale" is the ordinary word for breathing out during normal respiration.