death certificate

American  

noun

• death certificates
  plural

1. a certificate signed by a doctor, giving pertinent identifying information, as age and sex, about a deceased person and certifying the time, place, and cause of death.

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death certificate British  

noun

1. a legal document issued by a qualified medical practitioner certifying the death of a person and stating the cause if known

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• death certificates
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

death certificate

On the infant’s death certificate, Diamantoni said, measles is listed as a contributing condition unrelated to the underlying cause of death.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

“Part of me jokes that paying for a death certificate would be like buying a lottery ticket.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

Leaving aside the tastelessness of comparing her death certificate to a lottery ticket, I doubt very much that it has any real-world parallels.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026

Graham's spokesperson said the death certificate would be pending until "all the toxicological and microscopic testing" was finalised.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

An hour after the death certificate is signed, Lucinda is laid out in the water well of the hippopotamus car and hitched to a team of twenty-four black Percherons with feathers on their headbands.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen