headstone

[hed-stohn]

noun

1. a stone marker set at the head heads of a grave; gravestone.

headstone

/ ˈhɛdˌstəʊn /

noun

1. a memorial stone at the head of a grave

2. architect another name for keystone

Word History and Origins

Origin of headstone¹

First recorded in 1525–35; head + stone

Example Sentences

They shake their heads at a photograph of a headstone someone put up in a front yard across the Lewis River.

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While Eureka and other places prepare to unveil higher-profile monuments and dedications, Dock’s headstone stands in quiet remembrance of a life upended by the purges.

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Thieves took and damaged more than a dozen headstones from a historic cemetery in Compton that represents the final resting place for hundreds of veterans, including several Civil War Union soldiers, according to the owner.

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Next to its headstone in the graveyard of institutions, one might also place a marker for the era that publisher Henry Luce once labeled “the American Century.”

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The circumstances of the child’s death are eventually established as being bizarre and farcical, and along with a recurring gag involving the epitaph on her little headstone, it’s all supposed to be hilarious.

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Related Words

• marker 
• monument 
• tombstone