Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definitions: Epitaph |
EpitaphNoun1. An inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person buried there. 2. A summary statement of commemoration for a dead person. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "epitaph" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | EPITAPH, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect. Following is a touching example: Here lie the bones of Parson Platt, Wise, pious, humble and all that, Who showed us life as all should live it; Let that be said -- and God forgive it!. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
19th Century Satire | A statement that usually lies above about the one who lies beneath. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Interment | Funeral, funeral rite, funeral solemnity; kneel, passing bell, tolling; dirge. (lamentation); cypress; orbit, dead march, muffled drum; mortuary, undertaker, mute; elegy; funeral, funeral oration, funeral sermon; epitaph. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Epitaph |
| English words defined with "epitaph": Epitaphian, Epitaphic. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "epitaph": BALFOUR ♦ Cooks, Crimp of Death ♦ Epitaph ♦ Forgive, blest Shade ♦ INSCRIPTION ♦ Lilburne ♦ Mutton-eating King ♦ Scotus ♦ What we Gave we Have, What we Spent we Had, What we Had we Lost, Wittington. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Epitaph" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. German (epitaph). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | There is an epitaph I'd like: Matthew 10:36. Well, Peter this is what comes of 'empire building. ('Breaker' Morant; writing credit: Kenneth Ross; Jonathan Hardy) Amigo, you just wrote my epitaph! (The Professionals; writing credit: Richard Brooks; Frank O'Rourke) | |
Lyrics | Confusion will be my epitaph. ("EPITAPH"; performing artist: King Crimson) | |
Movie/TV Titles | No Epitaph to Us Kamikaze Cop (1971) The Epitaph (1970) Epitaph to My Love (1961) Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) Epitaph for a Spy (1953) | |
Song Titles | Epitaph (performing artist: King Crimson) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
![]() | Epitaph.Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Epitaph.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Friedrich Nietzsche | Wit is the epitaph of an emotion. |
Robert Emmet | Let there be no inscription upon my tomb. Let no man write my epitaph. No man can write my epitaph. I am here ready to die. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | INSCRIPTION, n. Something written on another thing. Inscriptions are of many kinds, but mostly memorial, intended to commemorate the fame of some illustrious person and hand down to distant ages the record of his services and virtues. To this class of inscriptions belongs the name of John Smith, penciled on the Washington monument. Following are examples of memorial inscriptions on tombstones: (See EPITAPH.) "In the sky my soul is found, And my body in the ground. By and by my body'll rise To my spirit in the skies, Soaring up to Heaven's gate. 1878." "Sacred to the memory of Jeremiah Tree. Cut down May 9th, 1862, aged 27 yrs. 4 mos. and 12 ds. Indigenous." "Affliction sore long time she boar, Phisicians was in vain, Till Deth released the dear deceased And left her a remain. Gone to join Ananias in the regions of bliss." "The clay that rests beneath this stone As Silas Wood was widely known. Now, lying here, I ask what good It was to let me be S. Wood. O Man, let not ambition trouble you, Is the advice of Silas W." "Richard Haymon, of Heaven. Fell to Earth Jan. 20, 1807, and had the dust brushed off him Oct. 3, 1874." |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Epitaph" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.33% of the time. "Epitaph" is used about 120 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.33% | 118 | 29,674 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.67% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 120 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
epitaph | 358 | epitaph moonlight | 3 |
epitaph record | 127 | epitaph writing | 2 |
epitaph spy | 107 | epitaph grave | 2 |
author epitaph spy | 52 | epitaph let man no write | 2 |
epitaph twilight | 29 | epitaph example | 2 |
epitaph famous | 13 | epitaph mother | 2 |
epitaph funny | 13 | epitaph records.com | 2 |
the tombstone epitaph | 12 | epitaph poetry | 2 |
epitaph poem | 11 | epitaph write | 2 |
epitaph humorous | 5 | epitaph picture | 2 |
christian epitaph | 3 | epitaph king crimson | 2 |
tombstones epitaph | 3 | epitaph veteran | 2 |
epitaph james joyce | 3 | epitaph funny poem | 2 |
epitaph shakespeare | 3 | epitaph lyrics | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "epitaph"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | epitaf, mbishkrim varri (motto). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كلمة قصيرة, نقش على ضريح. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | надгробен надпис, епитафия. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | "誌銘 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | epitaf, náhrobní nápis. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | نوشته روی سنگ قبر (Hicjacet), وفات نامه . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | épitaphe. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | grabinschrift (monumental inscription), Grabschrift. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | επιτάφιοσ (sepulchral), επιτάφιο επίγραμα. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | sírfelirat. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | tulisan pada nisan. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | epitaffio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 碑銘 (inscription). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ひぶ" (epigraph, inscription), ひめい (inscription, scream, shriek, unnatural or untimely death), ぼひめい (inscription on a tombstone), ぼし (inscription on a tomb, mother and child, thumb), エ"タフ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | kione-ghraue (title, title of book). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | gravskrift. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | epitaphay arquitrave (architrave). (various references) epitaf. (various references) эпитафия. (various references) epitaf. (various references) epitafio. (various references) gravskrift (memorial words), epitaf. (various references) mezar yazıtı, kitabe (epigraph, inscription, legend, panel, tablet, writing). (various references) епітафія. (various references) văn mộ chí, mộ chi văn bia. (various references) beddargraff. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | epigramma. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | epitaphium. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "epitaph": epitaphial, epitaphic, epitaphs. (additional references) | |
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"Epitaph" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: epitaf, epitagh, epitah, epitaphy, epitath, epiteph, epiteth, epithaph, epitope, eptiaph. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "epitaph" (pronounced e"puta'f) |
| 3 | -t a' f | flagstaff, overstaff. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-h-i-p-p-t" | |
-2 letters: pieta, pipet. | |
-3 letters: eath, epha, haet, hate, heap, heat, pate, path, peat, phat, pipe, pita, pith, tape, tepa, thae. | |
-4 letters: ait, ape, apt, ate, eat, eta, eth, hae, hap, hat, hep, het, hie, hip, hit, pah, pap, pat, pea, peh, pep, pet, phi, pht, pia, pie, pip, pit, tae, tap, tea, the, tie. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-h-i-p-p-t" | |
+1 letter: epitaphs, happiest. | |
+2 letters: epitaphic. | |
+3 letters: epitaphial, unhappiest. | |
+4 letters: apophyllite, apostleship, diphosphate, epigraphist, paperweight, partnership, phosphatide, phosphatize, praetorship, primateship, prophetical, transhipped. | |
+5 letters: apophyllites, apostleships, apostrophise, apostrophize, diphosphates, epigraphists, hyperplastic, hypertypical, leptocephali, naprapathies, nephropathic, paperweights, partnerships, periphrastic, petrographic, phenotypical, phosphatides, phosphatized, phosphatizes, praetorships, primateships, slaphappiest, topographies, transshipped, triphosphate, typographies. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)45 70 69 74 61 70 68 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references). .--. .. - .- .--. .... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000101 01110000 01101001 01110100 01100001 01110000 01101000 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)E p i t a p h |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0045 0070 0069 0074 0061 0070 0068 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)39827586678274 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.