memento mori
/məˌmɛntoʊ ˈmɔːɹi/
memento mori noun: an emblematic object or personal ornament, such as a skull, used as a reminder of one's mortality.
Noun
memento mori (plural memento mori or memento moris or mementos mori or mementoes mori)
- An emblematic object or personal ornament, such as a skull, used as a reminder of one's mortality.
- No, Ile be ſworne: I make as good vſe of it, as many a man doth of a Deaths-Head, or a Memento Mori.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- A great man must keep his heir at his feast like a living memento mori. If he holds very much by life, the presence of the other must be a constant sting and warning. “Make ready to go,” says the successor to your honour; “I am waiting: and I could hold it as well as you.”1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXIII, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 229
memento mori meaning in Thai and Vietnamese
memento mori in Thai
- memento mori
- มรณานุสติ
memento mori in Vietnamese
- memento mori
- niệm chết, hãy nhớ rằng ngươi sẽ phải chết
Examples of memento mori in a sentence
- I repeat that you have always maintained, that to thrust a memento mori in every man’s face, or to carve it upon his walking-stick, is irreligious, because it is essential unthankfulness.1854 October, “Civilisation.—The Census.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume LXXVI, number CCCCLXVIII, Edinburgh; London: William...
- Along the street leading to the latter were arranged on both sides stalls and tables, gayly festooned with crowns, crosses, and memento moris, and attended by female hucksters.1867, Robert Tomes, “A Cheerful Resort—Cemetery at Rheims—Death and Champagne—[…]”, in The Champagne Country, New YorK, N.Y.: […]...
- The series of moments [which] the clock records is not only a succession of “nows” but a memento mori diminishing the number of seconds that remain before death.1993, Richard Klein, “Introduction”, in Cigarettes are sublime, Paperback edition, Durham: Duke University Press, published 1995, →ISBN...
- He had no image of his mother when she was alive, just this grotesque-seeming token of her death staring out at him as an unsettling memento mori.2014 April 1, Tom Service, “Sex, death and dissonance: the strange, obsessive world of Anton Bruckner”, in The Guardian:
Forms of memento mori
| plural | memento mori |
|---|---|
| plural | memento moris |
| plural | mementos mori |
| plural | mementoes mori |
Origin of memento mori
From Latin mementō morī (literally “be mindful of dying”).
Questions about memento mori
- What does memento mori mean?
- Memento mori means an emblematic object or personal ornament, such as a skull, used as a reminder of one's mortality.
- What is memento mori in Thai?
- Memento mori in Thai is มรณานุสติ. See Memento mori meaning in Thai.
- How do you use memento mori in a sentence?
- I repeat that you have always maintained, that to thrust a memento mori in every man’s face, or to carve it upon his walking-stick, is irreligious, because it is essential unthankfulness.
- What part of speech is memento mori?
- Memento mori is a noun.
- How do you pronounce memento mori?
- Memento mori is pronounced /məˌmɛntoʊ ˈmɔːɹi/.
- What is the plural of memento mori?
- The plural of memento mori is memento mori.
Words near memento mori in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: memento mori (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “memento mori.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/memento_mori. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.