cenotaph
pronunciation
How to pronounce cenotaph in British English:
UK [ˈsenətɑ:f]
How to pronounce cenotaph in American English:
US [ˈsenətæf]
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- Noun:
- a monument built to honor soldiers who died in a war
Word Origin
- cenotaph
- cenotaph: [17] A cenotaph is literally an ‘empty tomb’: the word comes, via French and Latin, from Greek kenotaphion, from kenos ‘empty’ and taphos ‘tomb’. The idea behind the name is that someone who had been killed far away from his or her home (for instance, in battle), and whose body could not be brought back, should be commemorated by a symbolic tomb.
- cenotaph (n.)
- c. 1600, from French cénotaphe (16c.), from Latin cenotaphium, from Greek kenotaphion, from kenos "empty" (see keno-) + taphos "tomb, burial, funeral," from PIE root *dhembh- "to bury."
Example
- 1. Wreaths are laid at the cenotaph on remembrance sunday .
- 2. London , uk : wreaths at the cenotaph in whitehall after the annual remembrance sunday ceremony
- 3. Kipling was a member , along with the architect edwin lutyens , who built the cenotaph just along the way from here .
- 4. The bomb exploded as crowds gathered at the town cenotaph on remembrance day .
- 5. The queen pain homage to the victims of two world wars by laying a wreath on the cenotaph .