INSCRIPTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does inscription mean? 

• INSCRIPTION (noun)
  The noun INSCRIPTION has 3 senses:

1. letters inscribed (especially words engraved or carved) on something

2. a short message (as in a book or musical work or on a photograph) dedicating it to someone or something

3. the activity of inscribing (especially carving or engraving) letters or words

  Familiarity information: INSCRIPTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSCRIPTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Letters inscribed (especially words engraved or carved) on something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

inscription; lettering

Hypernyms ("inscription" is a kind of...):

piece of writing; writing; written material (the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inscription"):

superscription (an inscription written above something else)

epigraph (an engraved inscription)

epitaph (an inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person buried there)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A short message (as in a book or musical work or on a photograph) dedicating it to someone or something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

dedication; inscription

Hypernyms ("inscription" is a kind of...):

message (a communication (usually brief) that is written or spoken or signaled)

Domain category:

photography; picture taking (the act of taking and printing photographs)

music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The activity of inscribing (especially carving or engraving) letters or words

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("inscription" is a kind of...):

committal to writing; writing (the activity of putting something in written form)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inscription"):

superscription (the activity of superscribing)

Derivation:

inscribe (write, engrave, or print as a lasting record)

 Context examples 

‘You have a very handsome stick,’ I answered. ‘By the inscription I observed that you had not had it more than a year.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

OMER AND Joram was now written up, where OMER used to be; but the inscription, DRAPER, TAILOR, HABERDASHER, FUNERAL FURNISHER, &c., remained as it was.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He led the way to a glass case in a corner, and pointed to the inscription.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“My reign is not yet over”—these words were legible in one of these inscriptions—“you live, and my power is complete.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

John pored long and earnestly over the inscription upon the back, with his brows bent as one who bears up against great mental strain.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Four arms spring from its summit: the nearest town to which these point is, according to the inscription, distant ten miles; the farthest, above twenty.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Only for one instant did the master spy glare at this strangely irrelevant inscription.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here are no aisles, no arches, no inscriptions, no banners.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The inscription beneath it runs: 'Probable appearance in life of the Jurassic Dinosaur Stegosaurus. The hind leg alone is twice as tall as a full-grown man.'

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The researchers examined contemporary written sources, inscriptions, coinage, papyrus documents, pollen samples, plague genomes and mortuary archaeology.

(Justinianic plague not a landmark pandemic?, National Science Foundation)