casket

American  

[kas-kit, kah-skit] / ˈkæs kɪt, ˈkɑ skɪt /

noun

• caskets
  plural

1. a coffin.

2. a small chest or box, as for jewels.

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verb (used with object)

1. to put or enclose in a casket.

casket British  

/ ˈkɑːskɪt /

noun

1. a small box or chest for valuables, esp jewels

2. another name for coffin

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• casketlike
  adjective
• uncasketed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• caskets
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

casket caskets

Harald's casket was then carried in a procession to the Palace Chapel at Akershus Fortress, where a private ceremony was attended by family members, foreign royals and other guests including the country's prime minister.

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026

That experience is due to come in handy, people around Brown say, now that the modern USW covers a spectrum of 850,000 cradle-to-grave workers from maternity nurses to casket makers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Mavericks fans staged a faux funeral complete with a casket a day later in front of the Dirk Nowitzki statue outside the American Airlines Center.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026

Traditional leaders and some locals wanted to burn the compromised casket.

From Barron's ● May 24, 2026

They stood side by side at the table, and slowly, Brangwain Spurge lifted up the casket that contained the gemstone found beneath the Elf King’s wading pool.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

In Tehran, a flatbed truck, decorated with intricate latticework and Arabic Islamic script, carried five caskets, painted in the green, red and white of Iran's flag, including the smallest for Khamenei's 14-month-old granddaughter Zara.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

Crucially, it held on to its stockpile of nearly 1,000 pounds of near weapons-grade uranium—half of it buried in caskets in a tunnel deep under its Isfahan nuclear site, according to the U.N. atomic agency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 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

They finished loading the caskets, and the major drove his jeep around the front of the plane and signaled the officer with the new guys.

From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers