headstone
Americannoun
noun
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a memorial stone at the head of a grave
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architect another name for keystone
Etymology
Origin of headstone
Explanation
A headstone is a grave marker, usually inscribed with the dead person's name. You might visit your grandfather's grave each year, leaving flowers beside his headstone. Another name for a headstone is a tombstone or a gravestone. True to its name, a headstone is often made out of a large piece of stone, frequently slate, granite, or marble. The meaning of headstone was originally "cornerstone," or the stone at the corner of the base of a building, but by the 1700s it came to mean "stone at the head of a grave."
Vocabulary lists containing headstone
Ghost Boys
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The Young Man and the Sea
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In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
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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.
Not included: “A headstone or any other permanent memorial,” the site adds.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 18, 2025
As he stood at the headstone in St Kentigern's cemetery, where his father, mother and three other siblings already lay, he took a moment to remember Anne.
From BBC • Oct. 14, 2025
They were instructed to plant one flag per headstone, say the name on the headstone and salute.
From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2025
Locate International is working to secure a new headstone for Mr Woolis's grave at Manor Park Cemetery in London with the correct spelling of his name, which Insp Dodsworth said "has to happen".
From BBC • May 18, 2025
Later his family had a headstone put in place that bore this warning verse:
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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.
