掲示板 Forums - What is the difference between 死 and 亡?

There's a difference in politeness.

Quoting from the Daijisen: 亡くなる = 「人が死ぬ」の婉曲的な言い方。 = A euphemistic way of saying that a person dies.

You can think of it in English as 死ぬ = to die / 亡くなる = to pass away.

There's also the word 死亡, which is often heard on the news or seen in newspapers, just to confuse you a little bit more... 🙂

Besides that, 死 has a more general use in other contexts, which 亡 does not.

For example in baseball: 二死満塁 = bases loaded with two outs

Or in the game of Go: 死に石 = surrounded stones that cannot escape