hypogeum

[ hahy-puh-jee-uhm, hip-uh- ]

noun,plural hy·po·ge·a [hahy-puh-jee-uh, hip-uh-]. /ˌhaɪ pəˈdʒi ə, ˌhɪp ə-/.
  1. Ancient Architecture. the underground part of a building, as a vault.

  2. an underground burial chamber.

Origin of hypogeum

1
1700–10; <Latin hypogēum<Greek hypógeion underground chamber (neuter of hypógeios underground), equivalent to hypo-hypo- + earth + -ion neuter adj. suffix

Words Nearby hypogeum

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

How to use hypogeum in a sentence

  • Verily you would think that the painter of these figures of the shades had only just quitted the hypogeum.

  • We shall call attention, however, to a hypogeum at Gizeh, which is numbered 81 in Lepsius's map of that tomb-field.

  • Violate the tombs, if she has taken refuge in the abodes of death, far within some passage or hypogeum.

  • That moment an old man, wearing a hooded mantle but with a bare head, issued from the hypogeum.

    Quo Vadis | Henryk Sienkiewicz
  • Here and there were separate monuments, and in the centre was the entrance to the hypogeum itself, or crypt.

    Quo Vadis | Henryk Sienkiewicz

British Dictionary definitions for hypogeum

hypogeum

/ (ˌhaɪpəˈdʒiːəm) /


nounplural -gea (-ˈdʒiːə)
  1. an underground vault, esp one used for burials

Origin of hypogeum

1
C18: from Latin, from Greek hupogeion; see hypogeal

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