casket
Americannoun
-
caskets
plural
-
a coffin.
-
a small chest or box, as for jewels.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
a small box or chest for valuables, esp jewels
-
another name for coffin
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of casket
1425–75; late Middle English < ?
Explanation
A casket is a coffin, or a box in which the body of a dead person is buried. Some funeral traditions include a chance for mourners to see the deceased in the casket before burial. Most caskets are made of wood — some plain, and others more ornamental. Many caskets are buried in cemeteries, although others are cremated, or burned to ash, depending on religious and personal preferences. You can also use the word casket to mean "small box," particularly a box for jewelry or other precious items, and this is the word's earliest meaning, from the Old French cassette, a diminutive form of case.
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
His body was returned to Serbia on a government plane on Thursday, with his casket draped in flags and received with military honours.
From Barron's ● Sep. 5, 2026
On Wednesday, Khamenei’s casket will be transported to Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, where Iran supports numerous armed groups, and where many among the Shia majority population regard Khamenei as a religious authority.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
A CT scan had revealed that his mother's casket also contained the remains of someone else.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
Women carry the casket of Razieh Zamani, a 34-year-old teacher at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school, toward the Minab cemetery.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
A horse-drawn hearse took Garfield's casket to the Capitol, where he had spent seventeen years as a congressman.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
The firm also owns Batesville, a company that makes caskets and cremation urns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
Indian authorities said an inscription on one of the caskets unearthed with the treasure confirmed the contents -- which include bone fragments -- as "relics of the Buddha".
From Barron's ● Jan. 3, 2026
She balked at the idea of a traditional burial, calling caskets and tombstones “a racket.”
From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2025
Saeed and Tia were buried the day after they died, by Rihab’s father and uncles, in temporary wooden caskets in an unmarked grave in Dahieh.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2024
Abraham Lincoln’s and John F. Kennedy’s caskets had also lain there for viewing.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
