What does immemorial mean?
Word: Immemorial
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Immemorial means so old that nobody can remember or find out when it began; going back further than any record.
Synonyms: ancient, age-old, timeless
Antonyms: modern, new
Word origin: Comes from Medieval Latin, from in-, not, and a word meaning to do with memory.
How do you spell immemorial?
Syllables: im - me - mo - ri - al
Tricky part: Students drop one m and write imemorial. There are three m's in all: two together at the start, then one more after the e.
Watch out for: imemorial, imemmorial
Memory tip: Count the m's as you write: imm, then e, then m again. Two m's open the word and a third follows straight after the e.
Immemorial in a sentence
Example 1: The elders spoke of the immemorial right of the village to graze cattle on the hill.
Example 2: Pilgrims have walked this path to the temple since time immemorial.
Example 3: The fishermen still follow immemorial customs before the boats go out for the season.
Fun Fact
In English law, time immemorial once had an exact meaning: any time before 1189, the year Richard I became king, which was taken as the limit of legal memory.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. antiquaty 2. immemorial 3. tradision 4. heritege
a) so old that no one can remember when it began
b) buildings, customs and objects handed down from earlier generations
c) a custom or belief passed down over many years
d) the distant past, especially the time of ancient Greece and Rome
Show answer
a) so old that no one can remember when it began. Immemorial is the correctly spelt word; antiquity has an i after the u, heritage ends in age and tradition ends in tion.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
The hill tribes still sing lmoaeirimm harvest songs that no written record can date.
a) imminent
b) immortal
c) immature
d) immemorial
Show answer
d) immemorial. Three m's, an l and an o point to immemorial; immortal and immature need a t, and imminent needs two n's.
Word Connection
Choose the word opposite in meaning to immemorial as used in the sentence:
Dancing round the bonfire at Lohri is an immemorial custom in many Punjabi villages.
a) recent
b) popular
c) sacred
d) joyful
Show answer
a) recent. An immemorial custom is older than anyone can remember, so a recent one is its opposite; a custom of any age can be sacred, popular or joyful.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct letters to form a word:
immemor__l
a) e, a
b) i, a
c) a, i
d) i, e
Show answer
b) i, a. The word closes with ial, the ri-al you hear in its last two syllables.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these could fairly be called immemorial?
a) a flyover the city opened last spring
b) a song that topped the charts in June
c) a river fair older than any record
d) a school fair first held in 2015
Show answer
c) a river fair older than any record
2. Grandpa says the village fair has run since time immemorial. Roughly when did it start?
a) longer ago than anyone knows
b) when Grandpa was a little boy
c) about ten years before that
d) in the year the school opened
Show answer
a) longer ago than anyone knows
