sepulchre
Americannoun
noun
-
a burial vault, tomb, or grave
-
Also called: Easter sepulchre. a separate alcove in some medieval churches in which the Eucharistic elements were kept from Good Friday until the Easter ceremonies
verb
Etymology
Origin of sepulchre
C12: from Old French sépulcre, from Latin sepulcrum, from sepelīre to bury
Explanation
There are many possible resting places for your body once you die, and a sepulcher is the best option if you want a fancy room made entirely from stone. Think it over, because you can only choose once. Crypts, mausoleums, sarcophagi, sepulchers: each one is a place to bury someone, with slight variations. A sepulcher (or if you’re British you’ll spell it sepulchre) is basically a stone room with a stone coffin where your body lies. The word comes from the Latin sepulcrum, which means “burial place,” for obvious reasons. Pronouncing sepulcher could trick you, because the ch actually sounds like a k: "SEP-ul-ker."
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:
In some accounts he is buried with his wife and two children next to the tomb of Jesus — the ultimate martyr’s sepulchre.
From Time ● Mar. 30, 2016
It depicts a stern risen Christ on the edge of a sepulchre; the city's name means "holy sepulchre" in Italian.
From Reuters ● Nov. 16, 2014
Maurice, meanwhile, is terrified of mouldering in respectable suburbia, dragging some poor virgin into the sepulchre with him.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 5, 2013
Mary Todd Lincoln understandably called the place "that whited sepulchre."
From Time Magazine Archive
With the crackling warmth of the fire and the smell of purifying incense the room seemed less of a sepulchre.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Monuments and temples, sepulchred stones and pyramids, rise up to declare the antiquity of the Negro races.
From History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens by Williams, George Washington
Keep still possession of thy gloomy place, That all the faults which in thy reign are made, May likewise be sepulchred in thy shade!
From The Rape of Lucrece by Shakespeare, William
Bury him kindly—up in the corner; Bird, beast, and gold-fish are sepulchred there; Bid the black kitten march as chief mourner, Waving her tail like a plume in the air.
From Verses for Children and Songs for Music by Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty
But softly tread upon the sacred ground, Where Britain's bards lie sepulchred round.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 368, May 2, 1829 by Various
Make the word sepulchred fit metrically into the iambic verse.
From Minor Poems by Milton by Milton, John
Definitions 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.
