Commemorate

//kəˈmɛməˌɹeɪt// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To honour the memory of someone or something with a ceremony or object. transitive

    "On November 11th we commemorate the fallen with a march."

  2. 2
    call to remembrance; keep alive the memory of someone or something, as in a ceremony wordnet
  3. 3
    To serve as a memorial to someone or something. transitive

    "The cenotaph commemorates the fallen."

  4. 4
    be or provide a memorial to a person or an event wordnet
  5. 5
    celebrate by some ceremony or observation wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Commemorated. obsolete, rare

    "In almost all the Psalms of praise, we find the preceding distress and afflictions […] first pathetically commemorat."

Synonyms

All synonyms
memorializememorializebeat the drumblow the trumpetcelebrateconsecrate

Example

More examples

"They were erected to commemorate a certain event or to tell an ancestral legend."

Etymology

First attested in 1599; borrowed from Latin commemorātus, perfect passive participle of commemorō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). Sporadic usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.