undertaker
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of undertaker
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at undertake, -er 1
Explanation
An undertaker is someone who prepares a body for burial or cremation. When a loved one dies, you'll have to visit an undertaker. An undertaker doesn't literally "take you under" after you die, but he or she does prepare your body for burial or cremation and assists a family with all aspects of funeral arrangements. If someone in your family dies, an undertaker can help you decide between burial and cremation. An undertaker can help plan a wake and the details of the funeral service. Undertakers help you select a coffin or urn. Of course, you will be making those choices for someone else — not for yourself.
Vocabulary lists containing undertaker
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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The Stranger
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Bronx Masquerade
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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:
"If you can't trust a funeral undertaker, who can you trust? How can someone be so callous, cold and calculated?"
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The polished silver name-plate on the white box, so small it only needs one undertaker to carry it, reads Baby Auckland, a name given to him by the authorities.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
Recalls a peeved Mr. Blankfein: “It was like the undertaker calling at your sickbed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
A local undertaker said the embalmed remains of the Iranian sailors were being sent back in sealed boxes.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
A Sanford undertaker was pressing his cause through Pheoby, and Janie was listening pleasantly but undisturbed.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
The undertakers were "shaken" and flagged down a passing police car, the court was told.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Now undertakers are offering dedicated spaces to families.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
Every autumn, as leaves turn from green to auburn and float to the ground, we turn into a nation of outdoor undertakers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
Modern Western culture caricatures vultures as undertakers, grim harbingers of death and hardly ideal images of maternal love.
From Salon ● May 11, 2025
We stood there like junior undertakers while the wind turned Cap’s unbound hair into a reasonable facsimile of a rain forest.
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
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.
