embalmment

American  

[em-bahm-muhnt, em-bahlm-] / ɛmˈbɑm mənt, ɛmˈbɑlm- /

noun

1. the process of embalming a dead body.

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Explanation

The process of preserving a body for a funeral is embalmment. Funeral directors are responsible for a deceased person's embalmment along with many other details. In many cultural traditions and religions, it's important to delay the decomposition of a person's body after they die. In modern times, embalmment is done with chemicals, but for centuries, spices were used to mask any smells of decay. One goal of embalmment is to prepare a body for an open-casket funeral; another is for medical research and education. Embalmment is from embalm and its French source, embaumer, "preserve with spices."

Example Sentences

In keeping with her mother’s request, the morticians wrapped the body in cotton — no embalmment — and put it in a pine box.

From New York Times • Mar. 18, 2023

She parses the semiotics of the sculpture’s wax, relating the material to death masks and embalmment, and muses on how “Little Dancer” reflects — and defies — our awareness of mortality.

From Washington Post • Dec. 10, 2018

Medical schools have the right of first refusal; the bodies they reject are passed to mortuary classes for embalmment training, which is required for a funeral director’s license.

From New York Times • May 15, 2016

She and Virgie paid for their mother’s embalmment, the funeral, the flights of relatives who attended the ceremony, a nine-day wake, and food for the guests.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 11, 2016

The next scene represented the embalmment of the body, which lay stark upon a table with depressions in it, similar to the one before us; probably, indeed, it was a picture of the same table.

From She by Haggard, Henry Rider