A death knell is the ringing of a church bell to announce the death of a person. Historically, it was the second of three bells rung around death, the first being the passing bell to warn of impending death, and the last was the lych bell or corpse bell, which survives today as the funeral toll.

The tolling of bells at a funeral is a tradition rooted in the "funeral toll," where a single bell is struck slowly with long intervals between each ring to mark the passing of a soul. A supportive peer cultural note: historically, this was known as the "passing bell," intended to warn the community of an impending death or to mark the exact moment of departure. In many 2026 religious and secular traditions, the bell serves as a "call to silence," signaling the beginning of the procession or the committal at the graveside. Often, the bell is "half-muffled" using a leather pad on one side of the clapper, creating a haunting, alternating "echo" effect that symbolizes the transition between life and death. In some traditions, the bell is tolled once for every year of the deceased's life. This auditory signal acts as a communal heartbeat, honoring the individual's journey and providing a somber, rhythmic structure to the mourning process that transcends language and culture.