funeral director
Americannoun
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a person, usually a licensed embalmer, who supervises or conducts the preparation of the dead for burial and directs or arranges funerals.
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a person who owns or operates a funeral home.
noun
Etymology
Origin of funeral director
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hiemer said he and his funeral director spent months trying to persuade Berlin politicians to let him return his mother’s remains for burial in her hometown.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 3, 2026
He’d lost his job as a funeral director and was living out of a van, draining his savings, and now he found himself stranded in the desert.
From Slate • Feb. 2, 2026
Over the past decade, she has been an embalmer, funeral director, hospice worker, and end-of-life therapist.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 14, 2025
When the time comes for the bodies to leave the anatomy centre, the university places them into coffins for a funeral director to collect.
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2025
He does not tell me he will call an ambulance or a funeral director, but instead asks me what I want for breakfast.
From "The Misfits" by James Howe
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.
