commemoration
/kəˌmɛməˈɹeɪʃən/
commemoration means the act of commemorating; an observance or celebration to honor the memory of some person or event. It carries an Arena rating of 1483, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, commemoration ranks #2,309 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,344 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #5,417 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #6,445 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
commemoration is pronounced /kəˌmɛməˈɹeɪʃən/.
Why “commemoration” is a great word
The act or ceremony of honoring and preserving the memory of a person or event. From Middle English commemoracioun, from Old French commemoration, from Latin commemorātiōnem, from commemorāre ("to bring to remembrance"), from com- ("with") + memorāre ("to remind"). First attested in English in 1384. Unlike "celebration," which denotes a joyful, festive observance, or "memorial," a physical object that serves as a reminder, "commemoration" is the solemn, dedicated ritual of collective memory itself. It is the hushed recitation of names at a cenotaph, the lighting of a candle on an empty plate, the annual pilgrimage to a site long since reclaimed by grass and silence—a formal, fragile bulwark erected by the living against the quiet erosion of forgetting.
Etymology
First attested in 1384, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English commemoracioun, from Old French commemoration (French commémoration), from Latin commemorātiō. By surface analysis, commemorate + -ion
noun
- The act of commemorating; an observance or celebration to honor the memory of some person or event.e.g.“commemoration ceremony”
- That which serves the purpose of commemorating; a memorial.
- The specification of individual saints in the prayers for the dead.
- The great festival of the Oxford academic year, usually taking place on the third Wednesday after Trinity Sunday.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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