cenotaph

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a monument honoring a dead person or group whose remains are buried elsewhere or cannot be recovered

   The city erected a cenotaph for the sailors lost at sea.

Borrowed through French cenotaphe from Greek kenotaphion, formed from kenos ('empty') + taphos ('tomb'). Its literal sense is therefore 'empty tomb,' a memorial without the honored person's remains.

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