1595–1605; < Latin cenotaphium < Greek kenotáphion, equivalent to kenó ( s ) empty + -taphion ( táph ( os ) tomb + -ion diminutive suffix)
A cenotaph is a monument to the dead, specifically those buried in another place. Cenotaphs are often erected in honor of war veterans. A cenotaph — which is very similar to a tomb — is a memorial to the dead. Unlike a tomb, a cenotaph doesn’t contain the body of the person memorialized, because the remains are elsewhere or couldn’t be recovered. Across the United States, you can find cenotaphs for people who served in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and other conflicts. Family members and other citizens leave flowers at cenotaphs to pay respect to the dead.
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In the square leading to the cenotaph, relatives and friends have written the names and ages of the disaster's 57 victims in red paint.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
Flowers and messages were left at the cenotaph in the One Direction performer's home town following his death in Argentina in October.
From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2024
The meeting took place late that month in Gwangju, by a gray stone cenotaph near the site of the minibus shooting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
“A vast cenotaph of secession” was how the journalist and historian Tony Horwitz described Richmond in his 1998 book, “Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches From the Unfinished Civil War.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2022
See Unas 7.133.Not unfrequently a rich Egyptian who was buried at Saqqâra had a cenotaph at Abydos.
From The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia by Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
More than 20 different faith groups were represented around the plain stone of the Cenotaph, with clerical robes mixing in with the military uniforms.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2025
They both would have stood in the same place facing the same message - the Glorious Dead - carved on the Cenotaph.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2025
This week will see annual Remembrance events, including the ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on Sunday.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2025
These will include the Cenotaph in Whitehall, the Royal Artillery Memorial in Hyde Park, and many other famous structures across Britain commemorating the service of the armed forces in the First and Second World Wars.
From BBC ● May 6, 2025
Mackay, James: sketch of, 181; poem, "The Cenotaph of Lincoln," by, 181.
From The Poets' Lincoln Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President by Oldroyd, Osborn H. (Osborn Hamiline)
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.
