Hospice Synopsis Glossary

Language that makes dying understandable, teachable, and human.

This glossary gathers the terms, frameworks, and care concepts used throughout Hospice Synopsis. These definitions are not academic abstractions. They are bedside tools — language shaped by clinical practice, evidence, and lived experience.

Clarity is care. Words matter.

Ars Moriendi

ahrz mor-ee-EN-dee | noun

Latin for “The Art of Dying.” A set of 15th-century European manuals written after the Black Death to guide the dying and their families through death with spiritual, emotional, and communal preparation. Ars Moriendi represents one of the earliest structured approaches to death education — a lineage modern hospice unknowingly continues.

  • Death Literacy and the Art of Dying

  • Death Positivity Movement

Calendar Time

kal-en-der time | noun

The way families experience time around illness and death — shaped by dates, holidays, milestones, and hope for renewal. Calendar time often clashes with the body’s reality, especially during cultural moments like New Year’s or holidays.

  • When the Calendar Turns: Three Timelines That Shape New Year’s on Hospice

  • Thanksgiving on Hospice: Giving Thanks, Receiving Grace

  • Christmas on Hospice / Winter and the Season of Frailty

Clarity Is Care

klair-uh-tee is kair | principle

A foundational hospice belief that clear, direct language is a form of compassionate care. Clarity reduces panic, builds trust, and allows families to make meaning instead of guessing. Avoiding words does not protect people — it isolates them.

  • Death Literacy and the Art of Dying

  • The Cosmic Sleep and Other Ways to Say Goodbye

  • ISBAR in Hospice

Continuing Bonds

con-TIN-yoo-ing bonds | noun

A grief framework recognizing that connection with a deceased loved one does not end at death, but continues through memory, ritual, internal dialogue, symbols, and ongoing meaning-making. Continuing bonds reframes grief from detachment to adaptation and is considered a normal, healthy response to loss.

  • The Wind Phone and Beyond: Ritual Tools That Help Families Grieve

  • Bereavement Series

Death Literacy

deth LIT-er-uh-see | noun

The practical, emotional, legal, and cultural knowledge needed to navigate dying, death, and bereavement with clarity and capacity. Death literacy includes understanding hospice, recognizing dying changes, preparing for after-death processes, and engaging anticipatory grief. It is a teachable public health skill — not a private intuition.

  • Death Literacy and the Art of Dying

  • The Cosmic Sleep and Other Ways to Say Goodbye

  • Hospice Is Not a Place, but a Promise

Death Positivity

deth poz-uh-TIV-uh-tee | noun

A cultural and clinical movement insisting death be visible, speakable, and part of ordinary life. Rooted in historical traditions like Ars Moriendi and the Victorian “Good Death,” death positivity challenges silence and stigma. Hospice Synopsis extends this movement by centering clarity and preparation, not romanticization.

  • Death Literacy and the Art of Dying

Forecast Moment

FOR-kast MO-ment | noun

A brief, intentional summary at the end of a hospice visit that clarifies what families may expect in the coming hours or days. Forecast moments do not predict timelines — they prepare people for change, reducing panic and unnecessary crisis calls.

  • Death Literacy and the Art of Dying

  • Managing Expectations in Hospice

ISBAR (Hospice Use)

EYE-ess-bar | noun

A structured communication format adapted for hospice handoffs and urgent calls. ISBAR emphasizes urgency, clinical judgment, and next steps, helping teams communicate clearly across roles while protecting comfort and safety.

  • ISBAR in Hospice

Language Shift

LANG-gwidge shift | noun

The deliberate move from euphemisms (“transitioning,” “expired”) to language that balances truth with tenderness. Language shifts strengthen death literacy and prevent misunderstanding that delays care or increases regret.

  • The Cosmic Sleep and Other Ways to Say Goodbye

Moral Residue

MOR-uhl rez-uh-doo | noun

The emotional and ethical burden clinicians carry when grief, loss, and meaning are left unprocessed. Moral residue accumulates when deaths are rushed past, unnamed, or unsupported — often mistaken for burnout or detachment.

  • My First Code Blue

Presence-Based Care

PREZ-ents based kair | noun

Care that prioritizes steadiness, naming, and human presence over task completion. Presence-based care recognizes that how clinicians show up often matters more than what they do.

  • Hospice Is Not a Place, but a Promise

  • What Hospice Teams Model After Death

  • My First Code Blue

Silence Lag

SY-lents lag | noun

The delay between recognizing that a patient is dying and saying it out loud. Silence lag increases confusion, prolongs false hope, delays hospice enrollment, and intensifies family regret.

  • The Cosmic Sleep and Other Ways to Say Goodbye

Symbolic Grief Tools

sim-BOL-ik grief tools | noun

Objects or rituals that give form to loss and allow grief to speak. Examples include quilts, memory bears, stones, letters, empty chairs, and wind phones. These tools support continuing bonds and emotional regulation.

  • The Wind Phone and Beyond: Ritual Tools That Help Families Grieve

Total Pain

TOH-tul pain | noun

A concept introduced by Dame Cicely Saunders describing suffering as multidimensional — physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. Total pain remains a cornerstone of hospice philosophy and whole-person care.

  • Hospice Is Not a Place, but a Promise

Wind Phone

wind fone | noun

A disconnected rotary phone first installed in Ōtsuchi, Japan, after the 2011 tsunami. Visitors use it to speak to deceased loved ones. The wind phone has become a global symbol of ritual communication and continuing bonds in grief.

  • The Wind Phone and Beyond: Ritual Tools That Help Families Grieve

Worst First

wurst first | principle

A communication approach that leads with the highest-risk concern before background or narrative. In hospice, worst first protects comfort by preventing delay and keeping attention on what threatens peace right now.

  • ISBAR in Hospice

yaydeath

yay-deth | noun

A Hospice Synopsis term reclaiming fearless, ordinary language about death. yaydeath does not celebrate death itself — it celebrates the courage to name it, teach it, and face it together. It functions as a cultural nudge, lexicon, and archive for making death talkable.


This glossary will continue to grow as Hospice Synopsis develops new tools, language, and resources. Each term reflects real bedside practice, not abstraction.