obituary
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A notice of someone's death.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ohbichoouhreeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
oʊˈbɪtʃuɛɹi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A notice of someone's death; usually includes a short biography
by extension
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.
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.
figurative
An announcement or description of the end of something.
adjective
Relating to obituaries.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A notice of someone's death; usually includes a short biography
Used this way, obituary is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- necrology , rarer, so it draws attention
- obit , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use obituary
- “I read a beautiful obituary for her grandmother in the local newspaper.”noun
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: notice of someone's death
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.