From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishepitaphep‧i‧taph /ˈepətɑːf $ -tæf/ noun [countable] ALMXa short piece of writing on the stone over someone’s grave (=place in the ground where someone is buried)
Examples from the Corpus
epitaph• Her film replays in my head, as an epitaph to some one else's dream.• Susanna Highmore asked Elizabeth Carter to write a piece on Leapor, probably an epitaph.• He wanted it as his epitaph and left it in a letter passed to his parents on his death.• With that I sat down to write what would prove to be either my epitaph or my passport back to power.• It is a sad epitaph to Salvador Allende.• Local people found the epitaph unseemly and ostracised the Parsons.• It so happens that Parrhasios composed his own review for posterity, namely the epitaph inscribed on his tombstone.Origin epitaph (1300-1400) French épitaphe, from Greek epitaphion, from epi- (EPICENTER) + taphos “tomb, funeral” 