memento
Americannoun
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an object or item that serves to remind one of a person, past event, etc.; keepsake; souvenir.
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anything serving as a reminder or warning.
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(initial capital letter, italics) either of two prayers in the canon of the Mass, one for persons living and the other for persons dead.
noun
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something that reminds one of past events; souvenir
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RC Church either of two prayers occurring during the Mass
Spelling
Memento is sometimes spelled momento, perhaps by association with moment. The word is actually related to remember. One of its earliest meanings was “something that serves to warn.” The meaning “souvenir” is a recent development: The stone animal carvings are mementos of our trip to Victoria. Momento is considered by many to be a misspelling, but it occurs so frequently in edited writing that some regard it as a variant spelling rather than an error.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of memento
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin mementō, imperative of meminisse to remember
Explanation
A memento is a keepsake of something you want to remember. You may keep photographs as a memento of a great family reunion — except for that one photo where Aunt Bonnie is wearing the lampshade and singing "Respect." No one wants to remember that! Memento is a Latin imperative that ordered people to "Remember!" People love to keep mementos from all sorts of things, including weddings, births, concerts, trips, holidays, and even school. You should be careful not to bore people with your mementos, however. Not everyone wants to see the ribbon you wore in your hair at the homecoming game, and your 8,000 pictures of your trip to Paris (Illinois, not the one in France) might be a bit over the top.
Vocabulary lists containing memento
The Westing Game
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myPerspectives 9.1
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Musty Dusty Words for National Old Stuff Day
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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.
See Examples For:
His first book, “Lessons and Carols,” was published in 2023, and his second book, a digital memento mori, is expected in 2026.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
A couple, out for a stroll, asked an AFP journalist to take a photo of them, a memento of a nice date back on their island home.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
The 26-year-old was a short-format star - the Olympic rings tattooed on the inside of his right bicep are a memento of a bronze-medal winning campaign in Tokyo.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2025
It is a chronicle, an accounting, a memento mori.
From Salon ● Nov. 11, 2025
“If the disease has disappeared as it no doubt has,” wrote “Howard” in that day’s General Advertiser, “every memento of its existence should disappear with it, that the citizens may once more enjoy repose.”
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
And now, all of these years later, you feel ostracized from your remaining family and, more than that, you were left with a few mementoes of those formative years and no inheritance.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
She is moved by the sight of the mementoes left by other pilgrims at the foot of the cross and adds Tom and Lizzie’s things to the pile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
It may keep mementoes of successes, souvenirs that mark important events, treasured valuable items and things that may seem mundane and trivial to some but give meaning to others.
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2025
He started keeping mementoes when organisations such as Kelloggs, Essex Police and Maxwell House would advertise on the bottles.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2024
He found Madame Hoo in their rear fourth-floor apartment kneeling before her bamboo trunk, fingering mementoes from her childhood in China.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
It's a trend that has filled TikTok and Pinterest as pupils look for more permanent mementos to be signed by their friends, while online marketplaces like Etsy offer thousands of personalised shirts for a fee.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
It’s as heavy as a weight vest, with a zippered pocket in back for the mementos he just traded for and really wants to keep.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2026
There were long-out-of-date policies, receipts, family photographs, work mementos and then, undetected at the back of one of the steel grey drawers, was a brown envelope marked 'Everton: Season Ticket Sales'.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026
Did you swipe mementos when the films wrapped?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025
As mementos, visitors stole ears of corn from the field and sawed young fruit trees into pieces of wood.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
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.
