bell tolling
Solemn metal ringing
Bell tolling is the slow, solemn ringing of a bell, typically a single repeated stroke with pauses between.
Church bells toll to mark deaths, funerals, or moments of mourning.
The phrase evokes gravity and finality: The bell tolling in the distance signaled the service had begun.
Figuratively, it suggests approaching doom or ending—from John Donne's famous meditation: Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
- chimeMelodic bell sound
- knellSolemn bell stroke
- death knellOmen of ending
- funeralService honoring the dead
- funeral processionFormal journey to interment
last rites · church · tower · peal · ring · death · solemn · clang · mourning · bronze · reverberate · somber · time of death · dong · steeple · passing · echo · cathedral
- mourningfuneral, burial, grief, bereavement, wake
- funeral ritesfuneral, bury, burial, funeral mass, burial rites
- memorialsmemorial, memorial service, memorial statue, memorials, war memorial
- funeral processionhearse, cortege, funeral procession, pallbearers, pallbearer
bell tollingwedding bells
Ceremonial marriage ringing
Christmas bells · birth announcement · fanfare · doorbell chime
bell tollingtinkling
Light ringing sound
sleigh bells · wind chimes · jingling · chiming · tintinnabulation