ossuary

[ osh-oo-er-ee, os- ]
See synonyms for ossuary on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural os·su·ar·ies.
  1. a place or receptacle for the bones of the dead.

Origin of ossuary

1
1650–60; <Late Latin ossuārium, variant of ossārium, equivalent to oss- (stem of os) bone + -ārium-ary

Words Nearby ossuary

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use ossuary in a sentence

  • In the middle, an open ossuary contains skeletons that have been exhumed in order to make room for other corpses.

    Over Strand and Field | Gustave Flaubert

British Dictionary definitions for ossuary

ossuary

/ (ˈɒsjʊərɪ) /


nounplural -aries
  1. any container for the burial of human bones, such as an urn or vault

Origin of ossuary

1
C17: from Late Latin ossuārium, from Latin os bone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012