graveyard
Americannoun
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a burial ground, often associated with smaller rural churches, as distinct from a larger urban or public cemetery.
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Informal. graveyard shift.
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a place in which obsolete or derelict objects are kept.
an automobile graveyard.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of graveyard
Compare meaning
How does graveyard compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A graveyard is an area where the dead are buried. When you walk through a historic graveyard, you'll see many beautiful old headstones and tombs. Other names for a graveyard are "cemetery" and "burial ground." It's slightly more common to use graveyard, a word that dates from about 1683, for the burial site near a church. If you work at a graveyard, you might care for the grave markers and plants. If, on the other hand, you work a graveyard shift, that simply means you work late at night.
Vocabulary lists containing graveyard
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:
A struggle also remains for Jefferson-Hemings descendants to gain the right to be buried in the Jefferson graveyard.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
They were there when the devastating Santa Barbara oil spill blackened beaches, turned the shoreline into a wildlife graveyard, and galvanized grassroots defense of the coast.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
Are you comfortable with the thought of ending up the richest person in the graveyard?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
During his Mayo visit, the Canadian prime minister and his wife Diana Fox Carney attended Mass at the parish church and visited a graveyard where some of his relatives are buried.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
The graveyard was located down the trail near Grandpa’s village.
From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba
He called for future submersible voyages to find more whale graveyards across the world.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
Wall Street’s graveyards are filled with analysts who have insisted that they would.
From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026
These sites are not graveyards, built for sacred rest.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2026
Add in recent cemetery thefts in Nebraska, North Dakota, New Mexico, Washington: Across the nation, American graveyards are being pilfered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
The most seriously ill were taken by cart to Bush Hill; the dead were placed in coffins and hauled to the graveyards.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
