cremation

[ kri-mey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act of reducing a dead body to ashes by fire, especially as a funeral rite:

   The others in the family want to have a private cremation, followed by a memorial service where we scatter the ashes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cremation¹

First recorded in 1620–30; from Latin cremātiōn-, stem of cremātiō; cremate ( def ), -ion ( def )

Example Sentences

You can write notes and leave them under her hand to be cremated with her.

From Freakonomics

Britta Lokting interviews an entrepreneur trying to help save the climate by composting human bodies instead of burying or cremating them.

From MIT Technology Review

Then Heal STL was burned down Monday like a moribund body for cremation.

From The Daily Beast

Cammue, whose agency has now performed a thorough assessment of the current cremation process at Boystown, is extremely concerned.

From The Daily Beast

"Cremation is not necessary to have safe and dignified burial," Tarik Jasarevic tells me.

From The Daily Beast

That is not an option for Tamerlan, as Islamic law prohibits cremation.

From The Daily Beast

Last November, for example, I managed to track down a celebrated tantric at a cremation ground near Birbhum in West Bengal.

From The Daily Beast

Three hundred sesterces were expended on the funeral, fifty of which were to be distributed at the cremation of the body.

From Project Gutenberg

It is worth noting that a number of specimens were found in the cremation cemetery at Borgstedterfeld near Rendsburg.

From Project Gutenberg

I am sure if he had been asked, he would in some way have indicated that he preferred cremation to any other mode of disposal.

From Project Gutenberg

I used my Security papers to get the body for special autopsy instead of the usual immediate cremation.

From Project Gutenberg

Consequently, the poems are of one age, an age of cremation and of burial in barrows, with no ghost worship.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• incineration