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rest in peace

/rɛst ɪn pis/
IPA guide

Rest in peace can be heard at funerals and seen on gravestones; it's a term used to express grief and goodwill toward someone who has died.

It's common in English to use rest to talk about death, as in expressions like final resting place (used of a grave), or laying someone to rest (used for funeral rites). So when you say rest in peace, you're saying that you hope a person who has died will have peace in death. It ultimately comes from Christian ideas about the afterlife, although not everyone who uses it is Christian. Sometimes, the Latin version requiescat in pace or the abbreviation RIP is used instead.

Definitions of rest in peace
  1. idiom
    used to express good will to someone who has died or to something that is no longer around
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