EPITAPH

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does epitaph mean? 

• EPITAPH (noun)
  The noun EPITAPH has 2 senses:

1. an inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person buried there

2. a summary statement of commemoration for a dead person

  Familiarity information: EPITAPH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EPITAPH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person buried there

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("epitaph" is a kind of...):

inscription; lettering (letters inscribed (especially words engraved or carved) on something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A summary statement of commemoration for a dead person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("epitaph" is a kind of...):

commemoration; memorial; remembrance (a recognition of meritorious service)

 Context examples 

“Yes, sir,” said my uncle; “I wish no better epitaph upon my tombstone.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And so was recorded the second epitaph in two days.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

By that her eye was instantly caught and long retained; and the perusal of the highly strained epitaph, in which every virtue was ascribed to her by the inconsolable husband, who must have been in some way or other her destroyer, affected her even to tears.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Laurie dug a grave under the ferns in the grove, little Pip was laid in, with many tears by his tender-hearted mistress, and covered with moss, while a wreath of violets and chickweed was hung on the stone which bore his epitaph, composed by Jo while she struggled with the dinner.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And this was the epitaph of a dead dog on the Northland trail—less scant than the epitaph of many another dog, of many a man.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

No one knew me, for I disguised my voice, and no one dreamed of the silent, haughty Miss March (for they think I am very stiff and cool, most of them, and so I am to whippersnappers) could dance and dress, and burst out into a 'nice derangement of epitaphs, like an allegory on the banks of the Nile'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Well, Spanker's troubles is over anyway; I guess he's digested by this time an' cavortin' over the landscape in the bellies of twenty different wolves, was Henry's epitaph on this, the latest lost dog.

(White Fang, by Jack London)