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• ashes
  ashes

  plural noun

  ruins or remains, as after destruction or burning
• Ashes
  Ashes

  plural noun

  a cremated cricket stump in a pottery urn now preserved at Lord's. Victory or defeat in test matches between England and Australia is referred to as winning, losing, or retaining the Ashes

ashes

¹ British  

/ ˈæʃɪz /

plural noun

1. ruins or remains, as after destruction or burning

   the city was left in ashes

2. the remains of a human body after cremation

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Ashes ² British  

/ ˈæʃɪz /

plural noun

1. a cremated cricket stump in a pottery urn now preserved at Lord's. Victory or defeat in test matches between England and Australia is referred to as winning, losing, or retaining the Ashes

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Etymology

Origin of Ashes

from the mock obituary of English cricket in The Times in 1882 after a great Australian victory at the Oval, in which it was said that the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia

Example Sentences

Glatt, who wears a bracelet containing some of Dena’s ashes “so she’ll always be with me,” unsurprisingly was emotional after the Santa Anita Derby last month.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2026

He’s come this far to sprinkle his folks’ cremated ashes at the only place he can picture them happy.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 30, 2026

Then too, she has her mother’s ashes in storage, next to a vintage Pee-wee Herman doll in its original packaging.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

Humberside Police removed 35 bodies and the ashes of 167 people from Legacy's parlour in Hessle Road following a "concern for care of the deceased" in March 2024.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026

As a final honor, Marina’s ashes were placed in the Kremlin wall next to Polina Osipenko’s, the woman who’d been Valentina Grizodubova’s copilot on the Rodina flight.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein