cremate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to burn a dead body to ashes, usually as a funeral practice

   Her instructions requested that the family cremate her remains after the ceremony.

2. 2
   verb

   to consume or reduce something completely by fire

   The intense furnace can cremate contaminated animal remains safely.

From Latin crematus, the past participle of cremare ("to burn; consume by fire"), with the English verb-forming ending -ate. The modern word is especially associated with reducing a dead body to ashes instead of burial.

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