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.
Piper Mark Smyth said after hearing of the appeal for local support, he got in touch to tell the funeral director he would be "willing and glad" to provide some music.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
The mother of a stillborn baby boy who was found at an undertakers almost two years after his funeral says the funeral director "will pay for what he's done".
From BBC • Apr. 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
In 2025, the couple—he, a 66-year-old retired funeral director and she, a 64-year-old retired nurse—sold their townhome for $350,000 and bought a house on a half-acre in Greenville for $320,000.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026
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.
