memento

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noun me·men·to \ mə-ˈmen-(ˌ)tō , nonstandard mō- \

Definition of memento

plural mementos or mementoes

:something that serves to warn or remind

a museum filled with war mementos
—Libby Lubin

; also :souvenir

mementos of their travels

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Examples of memento in a Sentence

a collection of photographs and mementos
It was a memento of our trip.

Recent Examples of memento from the Web

When the Berlin Wall, for decades a symbol of division, came down, its fragments became precious mementos of freedom.

— julia ioffe, The Atlantic, "How to Repurpose a Bad Statue," 21 Aug. 2017
Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto exited the dugout to call for the memento.

— zach buchanan, Cincinnati.com, "UPDATED: Reds rookie Ervin gets first homer," 17 Aug. 2017
But Kennedy kept a memento of their meeting on his desk in the Oval Office throughout his presidency, and the two men never forgot him, Brown writes.

— kat eschner, Smithsonian, "Why JFK Kept a Coconut Shell in the Oval Office," 2 Aug. 2017
Smith invited members of the community to come by the school Monday to leave cards, flowers and other mementos on the high school steps.

— matthew kauffman, courant.com, "East Hampton High School Principal Dies," 30 July 2017
Visit the stand to gather supplies for a barbecue, picnic, or a roadside snack, and make sure to grab extra to take back to the city with you: our favorite kind of upstate memento.

— sylvie morgan brown, Bon Appetit, "A Weekender's Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Shopping in the Hudson Valley," 10 July 2017
And for a takeaway memento, the words of the proposal can be etched in glass.

— pam kragen, Pacific San Diego Magazine, "Ponsaty’s unwraps secret dining room," 3 July 2017
Your kids will come home with a wonderful memento of their vacation.

— kirby adams, The Courier-Journal, "Are we there yet? Tips to help entertain even the crankiest road tripper," 29 June 2017
Six months later, the photos and mementos from the service are still out.

— tessa weinberg, The Courier-Journal, "$4000 pet funeral 'like therapy' for owners," 28 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'memento.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Memento comes from the imperative form of "meminisse," a Latin verb that literally means "to remember." (The term memento mori, meaning "a reminder of mortality," translates as "remember that you must die.") The history of "memento" makes it clear where its spelling came from, but because a memento often helps one remember a particular moment, people occasionally spell the term "momento." That second version is usually considered a misspelling, but it appears often enough in edited prose to have been considered acceptable for entry in Webster's Third New International Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary.