commemorate Meaning, Definition & Usage

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

WordNet

Com*mem"o*rate transitive verb
Etymology
L. commemoratus, p. p. of commemorare to remember; com- + memorare to mention, fr. memor mindful. See Memory.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Commemorated; present participle & verbal noun Commemorating
Definitions
  1. To call to remembrance by a special act or observance; to celebrate with honor and solemnity; to honor, as a person or event, by some act of respect of affection, intended to preserve the remembrance of the person or event; as, to commemorate the sufferings and dying love of our Savior by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; to commemorate the Declaration of Independence by the observance of the Fourth of July.
    We are called upon to commemorate a revolution. Atterbury.
    Syn. -- See Celebrate.

Webster 1913