epitaph

[ep-i-taf, -tahf]

noun

1. a commemorative inscription on a tomb or mortuary monument about the person buried at that site.

2. a brief poem or other writing in praise of a deceased person.

verb (used with object)

1. to commemorate in or with an epitaph.

epitaph

/ ˌɛpɪˈtæfɪk, -ˌtæf, ˈɛpɪˌtɑːf /

noun

1. a commemorative inscription on a tombstone or monument

2. a speech or written passage composed in commemoration of a dead person

3. a final judgment on a person or thing

Other Word Forms

• epitaphic adjective
• epitaphist noun
• epitaphless adjective
• unepitaphed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of epitaph¹

1350–1400; Middle English epitaphe < Latin epitaphium < Greek epitáphion over or at a tomb, equivalent to epi- epi- + táph ( os ) tomb + -ion noun, adj. suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of epitaph¹

C14: via Latin from Greek epitaphion, from epitaphios over a tomb, from _epi- + taphos tomb

Example Sentences

Their epitaph was the greatest bloodbath in American history.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

When the cartographer James Cheshire stumbled into the room in University College London several years ago, he encountered less a resource for mapping the modern globe than “an epitaph of a world we once knew.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In words he shared with teenagers, Prefontaine wrote his own best epitaph: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

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Instead, it seems that American exceptionalism will play a prominent role in the epitaph for American democracy.

Read more on Salon

There’s an abundance of small slabs, simple epitaphs like Our Baby.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• elegy 
• eulogy