columbarium

[ kol-uhm-bair-ee-uhm ]

/ ˌkɒl əmˈbɛər i əm /

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noun, plural col·um·bar·i·a

[kol-uhm-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.

columbary.

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Origin of columbarium

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

Words nearby columbarium

colubrid, colubrine, colugo, Colum, Columba, columbarium, columbary, columbate, Columbia, Columbia Heights, Columbian

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use columbarium in a sentence

Space also is being carved out to build a columbarium and a scatter garden, where people can distribute ashes of their loved ones, Thomas said.
At a historic cemetery for the enslaved, a mother’s personal grief mixes with collective mourning|Rebecca Tan|October 24, 2021|Washington Post
Grace, a lawyer, and fellow Holy Trinity parishioner Jack Brady, an architect, proposed building a columbarium at Holy Rood.
In Glover Park, an old Catholic cemetery gets new life|John Kelly|December 2, 2020|Washington Post
Thus they looked somewhat like the little entrances to a pigeon-house, and hence the name of Columbarium.
Passages From the French and Italian Notebooks, Volume 1|Nathaniel Hawthorne
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

So as she still sat with shining eyes, dreaming again of that columbarium, I pressed to the next point.
The Tower of Oblivion|Oliver Onions
Columbarium, literally a pigeon-house—a Roman sepulchre built in many compartments.
Architecture|Thomas Roger Smith
I well remember dreaming that I was a disused columbarium which had been converted into a brewery and was used as a greenhouse.
Berry And Co.|Dornford Yates

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