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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:

Out of this charnel house where an American flag hung at one end, technicians hoped to identify 388 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma.

From Los Angeles Times Oct. 8, 2024

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

From the charnel house of the Viennese system a poison-laden atmosphere steals over us.

From A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Volume Two (of Three) by Emerson, Edwin

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