memento
noun
Libby Lubin
Did you know?
In Latin, memento is the imperative form (meaning it is used as a command) of meminisse, a verb that means “to remember.” (The term memento mori, which refers to a reminder of mortality, translates literally as “remember that you must die,” for example). The history of memento makes it clear where its spelling came from, but because a memento often helps one remember a particular moment, people occasionally spell the term momento. This is typically considered a misspelling, but it appears often enough in edited prose (including the work of such esteemed authors as George Eliot and Dylan Thomas) to have been entered in most dictionaries as an acceptable variant spelling.
Examples of memento in a Sentence
Elizabeth Kiefer, Architectural Digest, 8 May 2026
For years, the stick was in my childhood bedroom, a memento from my earliest hiking memory.
—Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2026
Before bed, Agnes adds Garth’s cigarette stub to her grab bag of mementos.
—Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 6 May 2026
Over a lifetime, filmmaker Lynne Sachs has collected business cards—mementos of brief exchanges with strangers—and selects seven to uncover why these moments have lingered so vividly in her memory.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 6 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for memento
Cite this Entry
“Memento.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memento. Accessed 12 May. 2026.
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memento
noun
