Meaning & use
mortician
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableAmerican
A person trained to prepare dead bodies for burial or cremation and to organize funerals.
Grammar: A countable noun: a mortician, two morticians.
Patterns
- a mortician at somewhere
The mortician met the family to discuss the service.
She trained for two years to become a licensed mortician.
The town's only mortician had worked there since the 1980s.
Word forms
| plural | morticians |
|---|
Common combinations
- licensed mortician
- Only a licensed mortician may embalm a body in this state.
- local mortician
- The local mortician arranged the funeral procession.
- mortician's assistant
- He worked as a mortician's assistant after college.
- hire a mortician
- The family decided to hire a mortician for the service.
Synonyms and how they differ
- undertaker
- Undertaker is the older, more common term in Britain and carries a slightly gloomier feel than mortician.
- funeral director
- Funeral director is the neutral, professional title, covering the business side as much as preparation of the body.
- embalmer
- Embalmer refers only to preserving the body, a narrower task than a mortician's full range of duties.
Word family
Commonly confused: mortician or physician? mortician or magician?
mortician vs physician
A physician is a medical doctor who treats the living. The two words end alike, but a mortician works with the dead.
mortician vs magician
A magician performs tricks; mortician has a similar ending but a very different meaning.
Practice
Which job is closest to that of a mortician?
Choose one answer.
A mortician prepares the dead and arranges funerals, which is what a funeral director does. Surgeons, pharmacists and lawyers do not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mortician”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.