Commemoration

How to spell commemoration

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce commemoration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commemoration mean?

1. nounA ceremony or action that honours and preserves the memory of a person or event.

Commemoration in a sentence

• The town held a quiet commemoration for the workers who died in the factory fire.

• A bronze plaque was unveiled in commemoration of the hospital's founder.

Where does commemoration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb commemorare, which meant 'to call to mind' or 'to bring to remembrance'. It was built from the intensive prefix com- joined to memor, an adjective meaning 'mindful' or 'remembering', the same root that gives us 'memory' and 'memorial'. The noun form commemorationem described the act of recalling something publicly, and English took the word through Old French during the late 1300s, originally in religious contexts where a saint or event was solemnly remembered. Over time it broadened into the modern sense of any public ceremony or tribute honouring a person or event. The spelling trap lives in the run of letters at the front: the doubled m of com- followed by the single m of memor, so writers must remember it is comm, then a single m, then the rest.

How the word is built

• com- (intensive, thoroughly)
• memor (mindful, remembering)
• -ation (noun of action)