Definition of TOMBSTONE

Examples of tombstone in a Sentence

Noun the historic cemetery's many tombstones marking the graves of children are telling reminders of the harshness of pioneer life

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Only when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come brings Scrooge face-to-face with his own impermanence in the form of his tombstone does the old miser begin to show benevolence and compassion toward others. — Dan Cable, Scientific American, "Coping with ‘Death Awareness’ in the COVID-19 Era," 13 May 2020 Astronomers have no trouble understanding how black holes — objects so dense that not even light can escape the tombstone grip of their gravity — can become the most luminous objects in the universe, powering quasars. — Dennis Overbye, New York Times, "A Black Hole’s Boomerangs," 14 May 2020 The island holds more than a million human remains, but no tombstones. — Victor Llorente, Popular Mechanics, "Inside a New York City Funeral Home’s Mission to Keep Bodies Out of Mass Graves," 24 Apr. 2020 As a child, I was fascinated by funerary objects: Egyptian mummies and their grave gods, memorial candles in temples, churches, and home shrines, old tombstones in small-town American cemeteries. — Time, "How Do We Remember Victims of Mass Murder? A Holocaust Survivor's Daughter on How She Honors Her Family," 24 Jan. 2020 Her name was etched on the tombstone, next to their father’s. — Los Angeles Times, "Coronavirus killed China’s whistleblower doctor. Now the virus has changed how the country can mourn him," 3 Apr. 2020 Not far from his tombstone, which is inscribed with an excerpt from his masterwork, The Recognitions, lies the grave of the incomparable George Balanchine. — Sylvia Poggioli, The New York Review of Books, "Pandemic Journal, March 23–29," 29 Mar. 2020 Not that there is anything ridiculous about trying to lengthen the distance between the dates on our birth certificates and the ones on our tombstones: ethical life depends on the meaningfulness of that effort. — Zadie Smith, The New Yorker, "The American Exception," 10 Apr. 2020 The tombstone backs up to the fence on Pine Street, near Paso Hondo. — Paula Allen, ExpressNews.com, "Farmer buried in San Antonio East Side cemetery suffered ‘unspeakable horror’ at farm near Yorktown," 21 Mar. 2020

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

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Last Updated

3 Jun 2020

Cite this Entry

“Tombstone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tombstone. Accessed 3 Jul. 2020.

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tombstone