epitaph.

1. A short commemorative text written on, or intended for, a grave marker.

2. A brief statement or work summing up or commemorating a person, institution, or period after its end.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• carve an epitaph
• terse epitaph
• read the epitaph

On the page

The epitaph called him gentle; his daughter remembered otherwise.

Moss obscured the final line of the epitaph.

She chose an epitaph that said nothing about rank or inheritance.

Usage notes

Primary category: gothic. Also a brief summing-up after a life or institution ends; distinguish from a longer eulogy. Plural epitaphs.