cremate

[kree-meyt]

verb (used with object)

cremated, cremating 

1. to reduce (a dead body) to ashes by fire, especially as a funeral rite.

2. to consume by fire; burn.

cremate

/ krɪˈmeɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to burn up (something, esp a corpse) and reduce to ash

Other Word Forms

• cremation noun
• uncremated adjective
• cremationism noun
• cremationist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of cremate¹

First recorded in 1870–75; from Latin cremātus, past participle of cremāre “to burn to ashes”; -ate ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of cremate¹

C19: from Latin cremāre

Example Sentences

Ladd was cremated on Nov. 10, a week after her death, the death certificate reportedly said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Sporting Times journalist Reginald Shirley Brooks wrote a satirical article stating that English cricket had died and "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia".

Read more on Barron's

But then Scott Michaels, the founder of Dearly Departed Tours, discovered that her cremated remains were interred in a rose garden under her married name, Elsa Lanchester Laughton.

Read more on BBC

"I don't want to be cremated, I want to be buried like this and have my little bones taken out," she says as her daughter runs around the graveyard and her father-in-law sips a beer.

Read more on Barron's

According to the outlet, Keaton’s death certificate listed her cause of death as primary bacterial pneumonia and noted that she would be cremated.

Read more on MarketWatch

Related Words

• char 
• incinerate