memento

noun

me·men·to mə-ˈmen-(ˌ)tō

nonstandard

mō-

plural mementos or mementoes

Synonyms of memento next

: something that serves to warn or remind

a museum filled with war mementos—

Libby Lubin

also : souvenir

mementos of their travels

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

a collection of photographs and mementos It was a memento of our trip.

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Each shelf conveniently comes with a lipped edge to help keep valuable photographs, mementos, vases, and more in place. —

Kelsey Fredricks, People.com, 12 Feb. 2025 Choosing any two of Augustus' four mementos will serve you well. —

Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 6 Feb. 2025 But Aquinas insists that physical remains really are more like mementos of the deceased than parts of them. —

Therese Cory, The Conversation, 28 Jan. 2025 Few pop culture mementos have illustrated this point with as much humor, and this one did it in under four minutes. —

The New York Times, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for memento