remains

1. 1
   staysverb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of remain.

   He remains hopeful about the outcome.

   Much of the original forest remains untouched.

   UsageFollowed by a describing word, as with is: he remains hopeful, it remains untouched. Also there remains one problem.

   Note

   The verb is spelled exactly like the noun, so "she remains" and "the remains" are told apart only by grammar: the verb takes a singular subject, which usually comes first but can follow, as in "there remains one problem."

2. 2
   dead bodynounplural

   The body, or parts of it, left behind after a person or other organism dies.

   The soldier's remains were returned home decades after the war.

   Forensic experts examined the remains to determine the cause of death.

   UsageUse are or were with it, however little is left: his remains were returned. One bone is still remains.

   Similarbody, corpse, bones, cadaver

   Note

   Because it covers anything from a whole body to a fragment, it fits cases where "body" or "corpse" would claim too much.

3. 3
   ruinsnounplural

   Relics or surviving structures from history or antiquity, such as ruins and artifacts.

   Like ruins left standing long after the people who built them are gone.

   The remains of the medieval castle attract thousands of visitors each year.

   Beneath the modern city lie the remains of a far older settlement.

   UsageUsually the remains of a building or place: the remains of a Roman fort.

   Similarruins, relics, vestiges

4. 4
   leftoversnounplural

   All that is left of a supply or quantity of something; the remnants.

   The remains of the harvest were stored away for winter.

   Investors picked over the remains of the bankrupt company's assets.

   UsageUsually the remains of what was used up or broken: the remains of the harvest.

   Similarremnants, rest, leftovers, remainder, scraps

   Note

   Leftovers and wreckage share this sense. It covers the remains of a chicken dinner, and also, in Margery Allingham's The China Governess, flour lying like trampled snow over "the remains of a decent blue suit." That second use shows the word stretching from what was left unused to what has been ruined: the remains of something are what survives its destruction. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Margery Allingham wrote The China Governess. penguin.co.uk
   • The novel describes flour lying like trampled snow over a ruined suit, using the quoted words. fadedpage.com

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