Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A ceremony or group of ceremonies held in connection with the burial or cremation of a dead person.
  • noun Archaic The eulogy delivered or the sermon preached at such a ceremony.
  • noun The burial procession accompanying a body to the grave.
  • noun An end or a cessation of existence.
  • noun Slang A source of concern or care.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or resembling a funeral.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to burial or sepulture; used, spoken, etc., at the interment of the dead; as, a funeral torch; funeral rites; a funeral train or procession; a funeral oration.
  • noun The ceremony of burying a dead person; the solemnization of interment; obsequies: formerly used also in the plural.
  • noun A procession of persons attending the burial of the dead; a funeral train.
  • noun A funeral sermon: usually in the plural, Davies.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to a funeral; used at the interment of the dead.
  • adjective a structure of combustible material, upon which a dead body is placed to be reduced to ashes, as part of a funeral rite; a pyre.
  • noun The solemn rites used in the disposition of a dead human body, whether such disposition be by interment, burning, or otherwise; esp., the ceremony or solemnization of interment; obsequies; burial; -- formerly used in the plural.
  • noun The procession attending the burial of the dead; the show and accompaniments of an interment.
  • noun obsolete A funeral sermon; -- usually in the plural.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Being related to a ceremony in honor of a deceased person.
  • noun A ceremony to honour of a deceased person.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a ceremony at which a dead person is buried or cremated

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English funerelles, funeral rites, from Old French funerailles, from Medieval Latin fūnerālia, neuter pl. of fūnerālis, funereal, from Late Latin, from Latin fūnus, fūner-, death rites; see dheuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1437, from Middle French funerailles ("funeral rites") pl., from Medieval Latin funeralia ("funeral rites"), originally neuter plural of Late Latin funeralis ("having to do with a funeral"), from Latin funere, ablative of funus ("funeral, death, corpse"), origin unknown, perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“to die”). Singular and plural used interchangeably in English until circa 1700. The adjective funereal is first attested 1725, by influence of Middle French funerail, from Latin funereus, from funus.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word funeral.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • They are beheaded.

    Countless innocent flowers

    At the funeral.

    - Joze Volaric.

    November 23, 2008

  • The comment about congrument reminded me of an architect who attended a funeral service at a crematorium he himself had not designed and remarked, as the smoke from the furnace rose into the sky, and to the mystification of bystanders, "I wish that had been my fumeral".

    April 15, 2012

  • I'm totally adding "I wish that had been my fumeral." to my list of punch-lines.

    April 15, 2012

  • ruzuzu, thanks very much.

    April 15, 2012