bier

American  

[beer] / bɪər /

noun

1. a frame or stand on which a corpse or the coffin containing it is laid before burial.

2. such a stand together with the corpse or coffin.

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bier British  

/ bɪə /

noun

1. a platform or stand on which a corpse or a coffin containing a corpse rests before burial

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Etymology

Origin of bier

before 900; Middle English bere, Old English bēr, bǣr ( e ); cognate with Old High German bāra ( German Bahre ), Dutch, Danish baar, Swedish bår; spelling influenced by French bière; akin to bear ¹, barrow ¹

Explanation

A bier is a structure used to hold a coffin during a funeral. When a popular public figure dies, crowds of mourners may line up in order to walk past the bier and pay their respects. You might confuse this word with beer, its homonym — but you can't drink a bier. The word comes from the Old English bær, "handbarrow or litter," and its root meaning, "to carry." Some biers are stationary frames, while others can be lifted and carried by pallbearers as they transport a coffin. It's a sad occasion that requires a bier.

Example Sentences

"In India, it's said that the bride enters the husband's home carried on a palanquin and that she leaves only after her death, carried out on a funeral bier," Rao told the BBC.

From BBC • Mar. 7, 2026

While you meditate you brood on the impermanence of all things, including yourself, and envision yourself as a corpse, lying out on a bier, all life gone.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026

As of Tuesday night, about 135,000 people had filed past the former pope, who has been lying in state without any papal regalia on a catafalque, a raised bier, before the basilica's main altar.

From Reuters • Jan. 4, 2023

Pershing then places a flower arrangement — pink chrysanthemums, said the AP — beside the bier.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 10, 2021

It is a shroud I weave for Lord Laertes, when cold death comes to lay him on his bier.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer