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epitaph

UK/ˈɛp.ɪˌtɑːf/US/ˈɛp.ɪˌtæf/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,519 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: epitaphs

An epitaph is the words written on a gravestone. A short epitaph, compose an epitaph, a fitting epitaph.

Figuratively an epitaph is any final summing-up, which is why a failed project gets one. The best known in English is probably Shakespeare's curse on anybody who moves his bones, which has worked: nobody has.

Definitions of epitaph

  1. 1nounepitaphThe words written on a gravestone.C1

    “The epitaph on her grave simply reads "She loved and was loved."”

epitaph is an inscription.

Where it comes from

Greek epitaphios means over a tomb — epi, over, plus taphos, a tomb.

  1. Ancient Greek

    ἐπιτάφιος — relating to a funeral

  2. Latin

    epitaphium — eulogy

  3. Old French

    epitafe

  4. English, today

    epitaph

Built from

  • ἐπί · Ancient Greek — over
  • τάφος · Ancient Greek — tomb

From Old French epitafe, from Latin epitaphium (“eulogy”), from Ancient Greek ἐπιτάφιος (“relating to a funeral”), from ἐπί (“over”) + τάφος (“tomb”). By surface analysis epi- + -taph.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

epitaph in the wild

  • An epitaph may be written in prose or in verse.

    Epitaph

  • One approach of many epitaphs is to "speak" to the reader and warn them about their own mortality.

    Epitaph

  • Swift's Epitaph is a translation by Irish poet William Butler Yeats of Jonathan Swift's epitaph, which Swift wrote for himself in Latin.

    Swift's Epitaph

  • Commissioned by Bishop Kalist and the Albanian noble Gjergj Arianiti, and embroidered by Monk Savia, the epitaph is a prime example of medieval Albanian religious art.

    Epitaph of Gllavenica

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.