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Definition of commemorate
commemorated
;commemorating
transitive verb
1 : to call to remembrance St. Andrew is commemorated on November 30.
2 : to mark by some ceremony or observation : observe commemorate an anniversary
3 : to serve as a memorial of a plaque that commemorates the battle
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commemorate was our Word of the Day on 06/12/2012. Hear the podcast!
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Examples of commemorate in a Sentence
The festival commemorates the town's founding.
The plaque commemorates the battle that took place here 200 years ago.
Each year on this date we commemorate our ancestors with a special ceremony.
Recent Examples of commemorate from the Web
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CELChe will stage a concert to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death on October 9th.
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Want to commemorate a special anniversary, memorialize a family member or honor someone — including yourself — for being a vital member of the community?
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Liu’s supporters have sought to commemorate him by visiting beaches, to the dismay of authorities.
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This exhibition was presented to the government of Japan on Aug. 6, 1985, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, and was held at the Hiroshima Museum of Art.
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Willy Lam, an adjunct political professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the port call was designed to support the theme of President Xi Jinping’s visit last week to commemorate the handover.
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Many celebrities commemorate July Fourth by wearing skimpy, patriotic bikinis, but none of them compare to Christina Aguilera, who served up MAJOR stars and stripes on Independence Day.
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To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Soviet experiment, the New York Times op-ed page has been publishing a regular series on communism.
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President Trump broke with a recent White House tradition and neglected to host an iftar dinner to commemorate the holy month of fasting.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'commemorate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
When you remember something, you are mindful of it. It's appropriate, therefore, that "commemorate" and other related memory-associated words (including "memorable," "memorial," "remember," and "memory" itself) come from the Latin root memor, meaning "mindful." Some distant older relatives are Old English "gemimor" ("well-known"), Greek mermēra ("care"), and Sanskrit "smarati" ("he remembers"). English speakers have been marking the memory of important events with "commemorate" since the late 16th century.
Origin and Etymology of commemorate
Latin commemoratus, past participle of commemorare, from com- + memorare to remind of, from memor mindful — more at memory
Synonym Discussion of commemorate
COMMEMORATE Defined for English Language Learners
commemorate
playDefinition of commemorate for English Language Learners
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: to exist or be done in order to remind people of (an important event or person from the past)
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: to do something special in order to remember and honor (an important event or person from the past)
COMMEMORATE Defined for Kids
commemorate
playDefinition of commemorate for Students
commemorated
;commemorating
1 : to observe with a ceremony commemorate an anniversary
2 : to serve as a memorial of The statue commemorates the battle.
Learn More about commemorate
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See words that rhyme with commemorate Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for commemorate Spanish Central: Translation of commemorate Nglish: Translation of commemorate for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of commemorate for Arabic speakers
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