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
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.
While this is by far the largest whale graveyard yet found, fossils found during trawling suggest there could be others off South Africa, the Iberian peninsula and the Crozet islands, said the study.
From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026
The pop graveyard is full of bands who fell out, melted down and broke up.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
Bimbo is maneuvered into a graveyard whose tombstones sway and sing, and whose ground opens up to reveal teeth.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
In a ditch near a military outpost on Obeid’s periphery, an army engineer walked through a graveyard of RSF drones shot down in recent days.
From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2026
Doc must have noticed, because he said, “I already told you both why we had to paint the house blue, and showed you how to lay graveyard dirt to deter spirits.”
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
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.
