demise
n. uncountablen. the end or failure of something that used to be powerful, like a business, a person's career, or a system. It is a formal way to talk about something finishing for good.
n. the termination of existence or operation; the end of a particular era, institution, or individual's life. Often carries a sense of gravity or significant loss.
The rise of the internet led to the demise of many local newspapers.
Market analysts pointed to poor management and a lack of innovation as the primary causes for the company's sudden demise.
Historians continue to debate whether the empire's demise was the result of external pressures or a slow internal decay of its political institutions.
From Middle English demyse, dimise, dimisse, dymyse, from Middle French démise, the feminine singular past participle of démettre (“to put down, relinquish”); from Latin dēmissa, feminine singular of perfect passive participle of dēmittō. The "death" and "end" senses derive by way of euphemism from the legal sense, as a person's death was a common way that the legal demise could be accomplished. The verb is from Middle English dimisen, from the noun.
Typically used with the definite article ('the demise of') and followed by a noun phrase identifying the entity that has ended.