commemorate
verb
Did you know?
When you remember something, you are mindful of it. And you are especially mindful when you commemorate something, formalizing your remembrance by doing something special, such as attending a parade or taking part in a ceremony. It’s appropriate, therefore, that commemorate and other related memory-associated words (including memorable, memorial, remember, and memory itself) come from the Latin root memor, meaning “mindful.” English speakers have been marking the memory of important events with commemorate since the late 16th century.
Examples of commemorate in a Sentence
Jack Smart, People.com, 3 June 2025
Minerva was erected in 1920—by Charles M. Higgins, an Irish immigrant who manufactured a famous ink—to commemorate the hundred-and-forty-fourth anniversary of the Battle of Long Island.
—Paige Williams, New Yorker, 2 June 2025
Initial hopes The Normandy Format talks started on the sidelines of events in June 2014 commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
—Anna Batta, The Conversation, 2 June 2025
In Serra’s work, nothing claims to be site-specific, and nothing claims to be seen, shown, or commemorated—these are the actual conditions of object experience in a social and economic order ruled by the dual tyranny of compulsive consumption and spectacle.
—Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Artforum, 1 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for commemorate
Cite this Entry
“Commemorate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commemorate. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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commemorate
verb
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