Sample sentences for COMMEMORATE

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Definition

mark by some ceremony or observation — especially the memory of something

We should have a holiday to commemorate her birth.

commemorate = mark by some ceremony or observation

This sculpture commemorates the victims of the concentration camps

commemorates = honors the memory of

It commemorates the disaster that put our town smack on the front page of the Boston and New York tabloids.
Louise Erdrich -- The Leap

commemorates = marks by some ceremony or observation

For an instant Druse had a strange, half-defined feeling that he had slept to the end of the war and was looking upon a noble work of art reared upon that commanding eminence to commemorate the deeds of an heroic past of which he had been an inglorious part.
Ambrose Bierce -- A Horseman in the Sky

commemorate = mark by some ceremony or observation

Nothing commemorates the site, only rubble and faded signs in overgrown thickets where hundreds of men once toiled and sometimes died.
Homer Hickam -- October Sky
The claim was made in an AMI pamphlet commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of The Jungle's publication.
Eric Schlosser -- Fast Food Nation
The engineer corps was working on a new arch that would commemorate the victory over Polybotes.
Rick Riordan -- The Son of Neptune
Apparently teleportation was such a rare ability that there was no official gemstone or token to commemorate it.
Henry H. Neff -- The Maelstrom
Dad smiles and says, "I just thought you should have something to commemorate this special day."
Melody Carlson -- Becoming Me
I am not ashamed of commemorating old Kester.
George Eliot -- Adam Bede
At one end is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, commemorating the Revolutionary War dead buried there.
Laurie Halse Anderson -- Fever, 1793
Like the pyramids and the ruins of Maya, they will commemorate an erroneous development of human genius.
Saul Bellow -- The Adventures of Augie March
If you don't want that, you don't go to high school reunions, you don't go to the thirty-fifth commemoration of the worst year of your life.
Judy Blume -- In the Unlikely Event

(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)

"Yes, there's a meeting of the Society of Amateurs today in commemoration of the jubilee of Svintitch," said Katavasov in answer to Levin's inquiry.
Leo Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina

The Bradleys with commemorative plaque atop Mount Suribachi, April 1998.
James Bradley -- Flags of Our Fathers

(editor's note: The suffix "-ive" converts a word into an adjective; though over time, what was originally an adjective often comes to be used as a noun. The adjective pattern means tending to and is seen in words like attractive, impressive, and supportive. Examples of the noun include narrative, alternative, and detective.)

But it commemorates an important day in our family: my sister's graduation, my rape trial.
Alice Sebold -- Lucky
I invented the laurel wreath to commemorate my failure—to punish myself for the fate of my greatest love.
Rick Riordan -- The Hidden Oracle
The last thing they needed was another quest to find another god who would probably demand his own commemorative T-shirt or Valdezinator.
Rick Riordan -- The Blood of Olympus

Quartered in this dingy hatchment commemorative of Symond are the legal bearings of Mr. Vholes.
Charles Dickens -- Bleak House

A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes.
Rick Riordan -- The Lightning Thief

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