tombstone
noun
tombstone
American
[toom-stohn]
/ ˈtumˌstoʊn /
noun
-
tombstones
plural
Tombstone
1
British
/ ˈtuːmˌstəʊn /
noun
tombstone
2
British
/ ˈtuːmˌstəʊn /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tombstone
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:
Celan called it a tombstone for his mother.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
In Ain Ebel's cemetery, Jallad caresses her son's tombstone, surrounded by women trying to comfort her.
From Barron's ● Mar. 16, 2026
“When I die,” Rob Reiner once joked to an interviewer, “I want my tombstone to read, ‘Now I’m in this place!’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
Instead, it was placed on her grave as a tombstone out of respect for the contribution the woman had made to the community's food security.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2025
Blue-furred, orange-eyed, red-fanged, a tiger snarled upon his left biceps; a spitting snake, coiled around a dagger, slithered down his arm; and elsewhere skulls gleamed, a tombstone loomed, a chrysanthemum flourished.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
The state has provided Sanger nearly $6 million for projects that include running a water pipe in a one-mile loop to Tombstone, installing a new water tank and helping drill a new well.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2023
What they lack in the lavishness of a Tombstone Roadhouse Loaded Double Down Deluxe pizza, they strive to make up for in simplicity and quality.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2023
“We’re in 1890 Tombstone, and the OK Corral is just around the corner for us if we don’t get things fixed,” Harris said.
From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2022
In some areas these confrontations resemble grade school lunchroom arguments, while in other settings they look more like a WWE smackdown or a scene from "Tombstone."
From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2022
Ringo spent most of his time here with occasional trips to Tombstone, where, on more than one occasion, he dared the Earps to try to take him.
From When the West Was Young by Frederick R. (Frederick Ritchie) Bechdolt
Bimbo is maneuvered into a graveyard whose tombstones sway and sing, and whose ground opens up to reveal teeth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Soldiers who demonstrated "extraordinary valour" are honoured with outdoor graves and tombstones, while others are commemorated in urns inside the columbarium.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
Nearby, a well-maintained veterans cemetery can be seen, its tombstones decorated with wreaths and flowers.
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
The art installation consists of over 100 tombstones, each with identical black fists and names I remember from 2020.
From Slate ● Feb. 11, 2026
Unlike on the old tombstones, the lettering on this one is sharp—sharp enough to cut me all up inside.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
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.
