undertaker

[ uhn-der-tey-ker uhn-der-tey-ker ]

noun

1. funeral director.
2. a person who undertakes something.

undertaker

/ ˈʌndəˌteɪkə /

noun

1. a person whose profession is the preparation of the dead for burial or cremation and the management of funerals; funeral director

Word History and Origins

Origin of undertaker¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; undertake, -er ¹

Example Sentences

On Thursday, the BBC saw undertakers and funeral vans retrieving bodies from the street, while on nearby roads, cars swept away by the storm surge were piled on top of each other.

From BBC

Callum Flannelly is a painfully shy undertaker in Ireland who will be disinherited if he doesn’t marry by the time he’s 35.

From Los Angeles Times

Her mother died on 24 November 2021, but it was May 2022 before the undertaker said she could collect the ashes.

From BBC

“The church,” he said, “has buried every one of her undertakers.”

From Seattle Times

As a former undertaker, Morton-Hayward knew the brain is perhaps the softest of the body’s soft tissues: It tends to decay quickly after death, liquefying and leaving only the skull behind.

From Science Magazine