Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
necrology

necrology

9.9
A published list of people who have died with short details about their lives
  • noun
  • /nɛˈkrɒlədʒi/
translation icon : necrología
  • Every year, the newspaper publishes a necrology to honor those who died in the community.

Examples

  • The broader effect of this attribution has inevitably established a necrology.

    Academic text (2000)

  • We will be doing something similar in a few minutes when I read the necrology, or list of the Faithful Departed.

    Blog text (7)

  • The necrology provided information about famous figures who had recently passed away.

  • He kept a necrology, documenting the lives and contributions of friends and family who had died.

Synonyms

obituary
vsnecrology
88 4.8

A published notice of a person's death with a short life story

is a published list of many deaths rather than single death notices
obit
vsnecrology
  • Literature
26 7.9

A notice in a newspaper or online about someone's death with a short life story

is a published list of many deaths rather than single death notices

Surface Forms

necrology singular
necrologies plural

Morphology

necrology = necro + logy

The word is built from the combining forms 'necro' and '-logy', but the modern meaning 'a published list or notice of people who have died' is specialized and not directly predictable from those parts.

Etymology

The word necrology comes from the Greek root nekros meaning 'dead' and the ending -logy from logos meaning 'word' or 'study', the same ending you see in biology. So a necrology is 'words about the dead', and today it means a list or notice of people who have died.