Epitaph Meaning
/ˈɛp.ɪˌtɑːf/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn inscription on a gravestone in memory of the deceased.
nounA poem or other short text written in memory of a deceased person.
Sentence Examples
The epitaph engraved on the headstone was a meaningful, succinct poem.
The epitaph was written in Berber.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The simple ____ on his grave read 'Beloved father and friend.'
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A short and moving ____ was carved onto the gravestone to honor the fallen soldier.
Word Origin & History
From Old French epitafe, from Late Latin epitaphium (“eulogy”), from Ancient Greek ἐπιτάφιος (epitáphios, “relating to a funeral”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + τάφος (táphos, “tomb”). By surface analysis epi- + -taph.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The church itself, or at all events the squat and tiny tower, has not altered much since Lamb saw it. But the epitaphs have gone. Search among the ivies and yews of the shady little churchyard will discover a number of flat, weatherworn slabs of stone, but the verses and the signatures have vanished."
— 1909, Eric Parker, chapter XXIII, in Highways and Byways in Surrey:
"Ayot St Lawrence's most famous inhabitant, George Bernard Shaw, moved into the New Rectory in 1906 because, it is said, of a gravestone epitaph in the churchyard. This recorded the death of a woman who lived to be 70 with the comment 'Her time was short'. Shaw thought that a place that considered a life of 70 years short was the right place for him."
— 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 44:
"Nam vinci in amore turpissimum putant, not only living, but when their friends are dead, with tombs and monuments, nenias, epitaphs, elegies, inscriptions, pyramids, obelisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts, anniversaries, many ages after (as Plato's scholars did) they will parentare still, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of their names, honours, and eternal memory."
— 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Honest Objects of Love”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
"The Commons in their speeches epitaph upon him […] "He lived as a wolf and died as a dog.""
— 1606, Joseph Hall, Heaven upon Earth:
"Let me rather be epitaphed the inventor of the English Hexameter."
— 1592, Gabriel Harvey, Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The simple ____ on his grave read 'Beloved father and friend.'
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A short and moving ____ was carved onto the gravestone to honor the fallen soldier.