obituary

CEFRB2

/əˈbɪt͡ʃʊ(ə)ɹi/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A notice that tells about someone's death and life.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A brief biography of a person (especially one who is well-known) who has recently died, usually describing their life and achievements, particularly in the form of an article in a news publication or an item in a news broadcast.

Examples

  • Reading the obituary section, for old people, is like taking a victory lap.

  • Tom Jackson's obituary said that he was born in Boston.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • /əˈbɪtjʊ(ə)ɹi/
  • /əˈbɪt͡ʃəˌwɛɹi/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An announcement or description of the end of something.

  2. A brief notice of a person's death, especially one published in a newspaper or other publication; also (obsolete), the section of a newspaper where notices of deaths are published.

  3. A register of deaths, especially one maintained by a religious institution; a necrology.

More examples

In context

  • He is the paper's obituary editor.

  • The newspaper came in, as usual, after breakfast. I looked it over, and discovered this memorable entry, among the obituary announcements of the day:— "On the 29th inst., at Brighton, Michael Vanstone, Esq., formerly of Zurich, aged 77."

  • “You want to know the ironic thing? I wrote my son’s obituary using ChatGPT,” Mr. Taylor said.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The family submitted an blank to the newspaper to honor their deceased grandmother.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

PIE word *h₁epi Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin obituārius (“obituary”) + English -ary (suffix denoting something relating to another thing or used in a place). Obituārius is derived from Latin obitus (“act of approaching or going toward, an approach; act of going down, setting; of the sun: sunset; death; destruction, downfall, ruin”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives and agent nouns); while obitus is a noun use of the perfect passive participle of obeō (“to go to meet, go towards; (figurative) to die, pass away, perish; (astronomy) to set”), from ob- (prefix meaning ‘toward’) + eō (“to go, move”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”).