morgue

American  

[mawrg] / mɔrg /

noun

• morgues
  plural

1. a place in which bodies are kept, especially the bodies of victims of violence or accidents, pending identification or burial.

2. a reference file of old clippings, mats, books, etc., in a newspaper office.

3. the room containing such a reference file.

4. any place, as a room or file, where records, information, or objects are kept for unexpected but possible future use.

5. such records, information, or objects.

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morgue ¹ British  

/ mɔːɡ /

noun

1. another word for mortuary

2. informal a room or file containing clippings, files, etc, used for reference in a newspaper

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morgue ² British  

/ mɔrɡ /

noun

1. superiority; haughtiness

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• morgues
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of morgue

1815–25; < French; name of building in Paris housing unidentified dead bodies

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Explanation

Most hospitals have an area called a morgue, where dead bodies are stored until they are buried or cremated. After a person dies, that person's body is often placed in a morgue until it can be transported to a funeral home, church, or temple for a memorial service or funeral. Occasionally, a body needs to be identified by relatives, and that often happens in a morgue as well. Another word for morgue is mortuary. The word comes from the French La Morgue, which was one specific building in 1800s Paris. It replaced the much more blunt term "dead house."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

morgue morgues

The army has set up an improvised morgue in Toledo because the city's existing facility could not receive all the corpses.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

"You don't expect your husband to go into hospital with one thing and then come out via the morgue as a health hazard."

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Ms. Margolles witnessed these outcomes first-hand in her earlier career as a forensic technician in Mexico City’s morgue, an experience that infuses her work with elements of scientific exactitude as well as ritualistic imagery.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

Vaccines, masking, improved indoor air quality and acquired immunity have all kept the virus at bay so that morgue trucks no longer fill the streets.

From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026

Many people came to the morgue to search for missing relatives and friends.

From "The Great Fire" by Jim Murphy

Like many others, she found herself at one of Tehran's largest morgues.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

Meanwhile, Natalie Grayson, from the GMB union, said care workers were "left vulnerable and terribly exposed" during the pandemic which saw "care homes turned into morgues".

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

“I haven’t slept. I’m running from hospital to hospital, to the morgues to see if they’re there—but nothing,” Fajardo said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

Zein al-Abdeen, one of only two forensic doctors in Khartoum, said the capital's morgues "were already full before the war".

From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026

Their laboratories were the morgues and autopsy rooms of a thousand planets, the Temples of Truth from which no physician since the days of Pasteur and Lister could escape for long and retain his position.

From Contamination Crew by Alan Edward Nourse

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Related Words

• funeral home

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