memento mori
Americannoun
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(italics) remember that you must die.
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an object, as a skull, serving as a reminder of death or mortality.
noun
Usage
What does memento mori mean? Memento mori is a Latin phrase that translates to "remember you must die."A memento mori is something, historically a skull, that serves as a reminder of death and mortality.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of memento mori
First recorded in 1585–95, memento mori is from Latin mementō morī
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His so-called “bone temple” is an actualization of his life philosophy, memento mori, which translates from Latin as “Remember you must die.”
From Salon • Jan. 23, 2026
Not even “Orange Grove Estates” as a memento mori.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 22, 2024
The death trip is a memento mori, that old medieval art tradition, which reminds us that we all die.
From Salon • Apr. 27, 2023
It makes for an unusual memento mori — though not, perhaps, as strange as a 19th-century yellow-glazed redware flask in the shape of an English outhouse.
From New York Times • Jan. 19, 2023
My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
