memento mori

American  

[muh-men-toh mawr-ahy, mohr-ahy, mawr-ee, mohr-ee, me-men-toh moh-ree] / məˈmɛn toʊ ˈmɔr aɪ, ˈmoʊr aɪ, ˈmɔr i, ˈmoʊr i, mɛˈmɛn toʊ ˈmoʊ ri /

noun

1. (italics) remember that you must die.

2. an object, as a skull, serving as a reminder of death or mortality.

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memento mori British  

/ ˈmɔːriː /

noun

1. an object, such as a skull, intended to remind people of the inevitability of death

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Usage

What does memento mori mean? Memento mori is a Latin phrase that translates to "remember you must die."A memento mori is something, historically a skull, that serves as a reminder of death and mortality.

Etymology

Origin of memento mori

First recorded in 1585–95, memento mori is from Latin mementō morī

Example Sentences

Kelson’s memento mori, in its way, adds dignity to what is otherwise a sentence to nothingness.

From Salon • Jan. 23, 2026

Not even “Orange Grove Estates” as a memento mori.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 22, 2024

The death trip is a memento mori, that old medieval art tradition, which reminds us that we all die.

From Salon • Apr. 27, 2023

It makes for an unusual memento mori — though not, perhaps, as strange as a 19th-century yellow-glazed redware flask in the shape of an English outhouse.

From New York Times • Jan. 19, 2023

My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambi­tion.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Related Words

• warning