Funeral or funereal?
funeral is a noun meaning “A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a…”; funereal is an adjective meaning “Of or relating to a funeral”. Use funeral as a noun and funereal as an adjective. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) funeral is about 182 times as common as funereal.
What is the difference between funeral and funereal?
| funeral | funereal | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective | adjective |
| Meaning | A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the body of the deceased | Of or relating to a funeral Similar to or befitting the mood or elements of a funeral: slow; black colors; formal; dignified or solemn |
| Example | Many mourners turned up at the local artist's funeral to pay homage | none recorded |
| Forms | funerals | none |
| Pronunciation | /ˈfjuː.nə.ɹəl/ /ˈfjuːn.ɹəl/ /ˈfju.nəɹ.əl/ | /fjuːˈnɪəɹɪ.əl/ |
| In writing | 23 times per million words | about once in every 8 million words |
Sources: funeral and funereal in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of funeral and funereal
funeral
- 1
A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the body of the deceased
Many mourners turned up at the local artist's funeral to pay homage
- 2
Alternative spelling of funereal
- 3
datedA funeral sermon
funereal
- 1
Of or relating to a funeral
- 2
Similar to or befitting the mood or elements of a funeral: slow; black colors; formal; dignified or solemn
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, funeral or funereal?
funeral appears 23 times per million words; funereal about once in every 8 million words.
funeral 23 times per million wordsfunereal about once in every 8 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).