Meaning

A monument, generally in the form of an empty tomb, erected to honour the dead whose bodies lie elsewhere, especially members of the armed forces who died in battle..

Example Sentences

A cenotaph was erected for him in Gaul, while his body was taken to Rome and inclosed in a magnificent tomb.

[…] tombs and cenotaphs were strewed thick around adorned by every renewing vegetation; […]

I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die. For after the rain when with never a stain The pavilion of Heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams Build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again.

But age is heart-wearied and tempest-torn: it is the crumbling cenotaph of fear and hope!

A tomb from which the body is absent, living elsewhere. The grave whose headstone bore the famous inscription, Here lies me two children dear One in ould Ireland, t'other one here. was a cenotaph, so far as regarded the "One in ould Ireland".

On Remembrance Sunday (November 14), [...]. A special service was held at Ayr station that afternoon, to allow people to pay their respects after attending the Ayr cenotaph that morning.

Word Forms

• cenotaphs

Related Words

When Should You Use Cenotaph?

Use cenotaph when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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