as in inscription
something inscribed on a gravestone in memory of a dead person
The epitaph reads "In loving memory of John Gray: husband, father, soldier."
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Recent Examples of epitaph
This famous epitaph is not real, but commonly repeated.
—
Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Oct. 2025
The show goes ahead without her, a close up of the microphone occupying her empty chair, is perhaps her most damning epitaph.
—Daniel Jonah Wolpert, NPR, 8 Sep. 2025
Advocates can postulate that, absent the resolve of the United States to fight in Vietnam, even in a losing cause, the Soviet Union and China would have been emboldened to invade and conquer America, Western Europe and Japan, writing an epitaph for freedom.
—Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 24 July 2025
The veterans slowly walked to the epitaph with the help of service members to pay tribute to their fellow Marines and sailors who perished there.
—Arkansas Online, 30 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for epitaph
Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Oct. 2025
The show goes ahead without her, a close up of the microphone occupying her empty chair, is perhaps her most damning epitaph.
—Daniel Jonah Wolpert, NPR, 8 Sep. 2025
Advocates can postulate that, absent the resolve of the United States to fight in Vietnam, even in a losing cause, the Soviet Union and China would have been emboldened to invade and conquer America, Western Europe and Japan, writing an epitaph for freedom.
—Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 24 July 2025
The veterans slowly walked to the epitaph with the help of service members to pay tribute to their fellow Marines and sailors who perished there.
—Arkansas Online, 30 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for epitaph
Recent Examples of Synonyms for epitaph
inscription
Noun
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Thought of as the graffiti of its time, the inscriptions also included stories about daily life, sporting events, passions and insults, carved into a passageway that connected Pompeii's theater district to one of its main roads.—
Emily Mae Czachor,
CBS News,
20 Jan. 2026
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The absence of inscriptions or detailed records leaves Nan Madol’s construction methods and original purpose unresolved.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
15 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Epitaph.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/epitaph. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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