cemetery
- an area set apart for or containing graves, tombs, or funeral urns, especially one that is not a churchyard; burial ground; graveyard.
Origin of cemetery
Related Words
tomb, garden, graveyard, mortuary, ossuary, crypt, sepulcher, catacomb, necropolis, vault, grave, Golgotha, churchyard, charnelExamples from the Web for cemetery
Contemporary Examples
The NYPD Emerald Society pipes and drums struck up a slow march and the procession began the journey to the cemetery.
Now open a cemetery" or "Do you make doctors work as nurses?
Three kids play cricket among the crude gravestones in a cemetery that is the largest in the province.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban ValleyMatt Trevithick, Daniel Seckman
November 15, 2014
I remember very clearly the scene at the cemetery, it was very emotional.
And they said Glenn Evans will take you up to the cemetery, throw you in an open grave and tell you he is going to kill you.
Historical Examples
Passing the Jewish cemetery, Kate and Harry paused a moment.
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
Macarius was attacked when in a cemetery, and passed a whole night in defending himself.
The DreamEmile Zola
Not long since I took occasion to visit the cemetery near this city.
The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of VII)John Greenleaf Whittier
Tip watched her, and she took the road leading to the cemetery.
This we dignified, even in common speech; it was always grandly "the Cemetery."
Tiverton TalesAlice Brown
cemetery
- a place where the dead are buried, esp one not attached to a church
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for cemetery
n.
late 14c., from Old French cimetiere "graveyard" (12c.), from Late Latin coemeterium, from Greek koimeterion "sleeping place, dormitory," from koiman "to put to sleep," keimai "I lie down," from PIE root *kei- "to lie, rest," also "bed, couch," hence secondary sense of "beloved, dear" (cf. Greek keisthai "to lie, lie asleep," Old Church Slavonic semija "family, domestic servants," Lithuanian šeima "domestic servants," Lettish sieva "wife," Old English hiwan "members of a household," higid "measure of land," Latin cunae "a cradle," Sanskrit Sivah "propitious, gracious"). Early Christian writers were the first to use it for "burial ground," though the Greek word also had been anciently used in reference to the sleep of death. An Old English word for "cemetery" was licburg.