death certificate

death certificate (plural death certificates)

1. A document issued by a medical practitioner, or by a registrar, certifying the date, location and cause of a person's death as later entered in an official register of deaths.
   • 1959 February, “Talking of Trains: The H. & B.R. fades away”, in Trains Illustrated, page 64:

     Meanwhile, the death certificate was as good as signed by the North Eastern Region on December 1 last, when all mineral workings were withdrawn from the H. & B. route and seven additional services were substituted on the N.E.R. route out of Hull; [...].

• birth certificate