Definition

1. Verb:
   • To honor and remember a person or event, especially with a ceremony or memorial: To show respect for and keep alive the memory of someone or something significant, often through a formal act or physical object.
   • To serve as a memorial to: To be an object, event, or action that exists to remind people of a person or event from the past.

Usage

• The primary use of commemorate is to describe the act of officially remembering and showing respect for an important person or historical event.
• It is often used in formal, historical, or ceremonial contexts.
• The object of the verb is the person or event being remembered (e.g., commemorate a victory, commemorate a leader).

Examples

• Verb:
  • The national holiday commemorates the country's independence.
  • A statue was built to commemorate the fallen soldiers.
  • Every year, we commemorate the founder's birthday with a special lecture.

Advanced Usage

• "To be commemorated by/in something": To be remembered through a specific object or action.
  • Her life's work is commemorated in this museum exhibit.
• Commemorative (Adjective): Made to honor and remember an event or person.
  • They issued a commemorative coin for the centennial.

Variants and Related Words

• Commemoration (n): The action or ceremony of commemorating.
  • The commemoration was attended by thousands.
• Commemorative (adj): Intended to commemorate.
  • A commemorative plaque.

Synonyms

• Memorialize: To do something to honor the memory of.
• Observe: To mark or celebrate (a day or event).
• Honor: To show great respect.

Antonyms

• Forget: To fail to remember.
• Ignore: To refuse to take notice of.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• In commemoration of: As a way of remembering and honoring.
  • This concert is held in commemoration of the composer's birth.

Verb

1. be or provide a memorial to a person or an event
   • This sculpture commemorates the victims of the concentration camps
   • We memorialized the Dead
2. call to remembrance; keep alive the memory of someone or something, as in a ceremony
   • We remembered the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
   • Remember the dead of the First World War
3. mark by some ceremony or observation
   • The citizens mark the anniversary of the revolution with a march and a parade