Meanings
obit1
plural obits
- historicalChristianityA mass or other service held for the soul of a dead person.First known use 14th c.
Medieval wills often contained bequests to pay for the singing of special (non-perpetual) masses on the testator's behalf. These obits, as they were called, combined alms for the poor with masses for the dead.
1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 582
obit2
plural obits
- colloquialAn obituary.
So a proposed US series, called Circling the Drain, is certainly breaking new ground. It involves a 25-year-old reporter (played by Caprica's Alessandra Torresani) who is reassigned from a paper's style section to its obits desk.
2010 December 9, Roy Greenslade, “Don't laugh - new TV show is set on a newspaper obits desk”, in The Guardian
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna notice of someone's death; usually includes a short biography
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
obit · noun
- Latinobitus“going down; death”
- Middle Frenchobit
- Anglo-Normanobit
- Englishobit
From Anglo-Norman obit, Middle French obit, and their source, Latin obitus (“going down; death”), from obīre (“to go down, to die”).
More words from Anglo-Norman, Middle French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with obit
Anagrams
Cite this entry
obit. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obit
“obit.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obit. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “obit,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obit.
Source: obit on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.