obituary
Syllables: obi·tu·a·ry/əˈbɪt͡ʃʊ(ə)ɹi/US/əˈbɪt͡ʃəˌwɛɹi/
obituary noun: a brief notice of a person's death, especially one published in a newspaper or other publication; also (obsolete), the section of a newspaper where notices of deaths are published.
Noun
obituary (plural obituaries)
- A brief notice of a person's death, especially one published in a newspaper or other publication; also (obsolete), the section of a newspaper where notices of deaths are published.
- [N]ot one in fifty of the actual disasters and deaths by casualties in the fishery, ever finds a public record at home, however transient and immediately forgotten that record. Do you suppose that that poor fellow there, who this moment perhaps caught by the whale-line off the coast of New Guinea...1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Affidavit”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 228
- The newspaper came in, as usual, after breakfast. I looked it over, and discovered this memorable entry, among the obituary announcements of the day:— "On the 29th inst., at Brighton, Michael Vanstone, Esq., formerly of Zurich, aged 77."1862, [William] Wilkie Collins, “VIII. Chronicle for April and May.”, in No Name. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], →OCLC, between the scenes (Chronicle of Events: Preserved in...
- Synonyms:
- obit
- A brief biography of a person (especially one who is well-known) who has recently died, usually describing their life and achievements, particularly in the form of an article in a news publication or an item in a news broadcast.
- You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: "Did he have passion?"2001 September 13, Marc Klein, Serendipity, spoken by Dean Kansky (Jeremy Piven)
- Obituary editors are confronted daily with the need to make delicate hermeneutic interpretations of the social meaning of individuals' deaths and to express these powerfully to their readership. […] [I draw] attention to a discrepancy that appears to exist between, on the one hand, the editors'...2007, Bridget Fowler, “The Social Value of Death: The Microworld of the Editors”, in The Obituary as Collective Memory (Routledge Advances in Sociology; 27), New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire...
- An announcement or description of the end of something.
- Mouths were agape on the announcement of England's starting lineup, the return of Keira Walsh appearing miraculous 10 days after she left the pitch on a stretcher in agony. Walsh’s World Cup obituaries were written; she was England's most valuable player, irreplaceable.2023 August 7, Suzanne Wrack, “England beat Nigeria on penalties to reach Women's World Cup quarter-finals”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC...
- A register of deaths, especially one maintained by a religious institution; a necrology.
Adjective
obituary (comparative more obituary, superlative most obituary)
- Relating to obituaries.
- He is the paper's obituary editor.
obituary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
obituary in Hindi
- brief notice of a person’s death, especially one published in a newspaper
- इत्तेला-ए-वफ़ात ittelā-e-vafāt
obituary in Tamil
- மரணக்குறிப்பு, இறப்பறிவிப்பு, இறப்பு அறிவிப்பு, இறப்புச் செய்தி, இரங்கல் தெரிவித்தல், இரங்கலுரை
obituary in Urdu
- brief notice of a person’s death, especially one published in a newspaper
- اطلاع وفات ittelā-e-vafāt
- brief biography of a person who has recently died
- وفاتیہ ofāteh
obituary in Telugu
- brief notice of a person’s death, especially one published in a newspaper
- స్మృతి smr̥ti
More languagesFewer languages
- obituary in Malayalam
- ചരമവാർഷികം, മരണവൃത്താന്തം, ചരമക്കുറിപ്പ്
- obituary in Kannada
- ನಿಧನವಾರ್ತೆ, ಸಾವಿನಸುದ್ದಿ, ಮರಣವಾರ್ತೆ, ಸಾವರಿಪು
- obituary in Gujarati
- અવસાન નોંધ avasān nondh
- obituary in Tagalog
- obitwaryo
- obituary in Arabic
- نَعْي naʕy
- obituary in Malay
- obituari
- obituary in Indonesian
- berita duka, kabar duka
- obituary in Persian
- اعلامیه فوت e'lâmiye-ye fowt, آگهی ترحیم
- obituary in Vietnamese
- cáo phó
Examples of obituary in a sentence
- Zarutska graduated from Synergy College in Kyiv with a degree in art and restoration, her obituary says.
- A job writing obituaries and one online date is not turning my life around.
- “We also made it easier to find the column—right next to the obituaries.” He chuckled.
Synonyms of obituary
Forms of obituary
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | obituaries |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more obituary |
| superlative | most obituary |
Origin of obituary
PIE word *h₁epi Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin obituārius (“obituary”) + English -ary (suffix denoting something relating to another thing or used in a place). Obituārius is derived from Latin obitus (“act of approaching or going toward, an approach; act of going down, setting; of the sun: sunset; death; destruction, downfall, ruin”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives and agent nouns); while obitus is a noun use of the perfect passive participle of obeō (“to go to meet, go towards; (figurative) to die, pass away, perish; (astronomy) to set”), from ob- (prefix meaning ‘toward’) + eō (“to go, move”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”).
Words formed from obituary
Questions about obituary
- What does obituary mean?
- Obituary means a brief notice of a person's death, especially one published in a newspaper or other publication; also (obsolete), the section of a newspaper where notices of deaths are published.
- What is obituary in Hindi?
- Obituary in Hindi is इत्तेला-ए-वफ़ात (ittelā-e-vafāt). See Obituary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is obituary?
- Obituary can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce obituary?
- Obituary is pronounced /əˈbɪt͡ʃʊ(ə)ɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of obituary?
- The plural of obituary is obituaries.
Words near obituary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: obituary (page history and authors); obituary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); obituary (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); obituary (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-obituary.wav.
Cite this entry: “obituary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/obituary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.