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Synonyms

charnel house

American  

noun

  1. a house or place in which the bodies or bones of the dead are deposited.


charnel house British  

noun

  1. (esp formerly) a building or vault where corpses or bones are deposited

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of charnel house

First recorded in 1550–60

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:

Technological "advances" had made it possible for governments to turn World War I into a merciless charnel house on a vast scale.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2023

Scaled up to a necropolis, it could make the right impression, a modernist Hooverville of death in the shadow of our great national charnel house of inaction.

From Washington Post ● May 25, 2022

Above their heads: a charnel house of endangered trees.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 15, 2021

Its portrait of life as a charnel house may be half the story but in this case, it’s the only half.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2021

From this charnel house let me to-night draw forth one of these.

From White Slavery in the Barbary States by Charles Sumner

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