columbarium

[ kol-uh m-bair-ee-uh m ]

/ ˌkɒl əmˈbɛər i əm /

noun, plural col·um·bar·i·a [kol-uh m-bair-ee-uh] /ˌkɒl əmˈbɛər i ə/.

a sepulchral vault or other structure with recesses in the walls to receive the ashes of the dead.

any one of these recesses.

Nearby words

colubrid, colubrine, colugo, colum, columba, columbarium, columbary, columbate, columbia, columbia heights, columbia mental maturity scale

Origin of columbarium

1840–50; < Latin: literally, a nesting box for pigeons, equivalent to columb(a) pigeon, dove + -ārium -ary

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for columbarium

With a powerful lever the soldiers attempted to prise open the door of the columbarium, shaking the edifice on its foundations.
The Death of the Gods|Dmitri Mrejkowski
On the road to Assiut is a fine Roman columbarium or dove-cote.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 7|Various
As the niche was like a dove's nest in shape, it was called a "columbarium," the whole tomb a "columbaria."
Rambles in Rome|S. Russell Forbes
There is the Roman columbarium, within the Etruscan site; there are the Etruscan tombs bored deep in all the surrounding hills.
Studies of Travel: Italy|Edward A. Freeman

Archologists call such a group of tombs a columbarium; (see Fig. 230).
Archology and the Bible|George A. Barton

British Dictionary definitions for columbarium

columbarium

/ (ˌkɒləmˈbɛərɪəm) /

noun plural -ia (-ɪə)

another name for a dovecote

a vault having niches for funeral urns

a hole in a wall into which a beam is inserted

Word Origin for columbarium

C18: from Latin, from columba dove

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