interment
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of interment
1300–50; inter + -ment; replacing Middle English enter ( e ) ment < Middle French enterrement
Compare meaning
How does interment compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Interment is the placing of a corpse in a grave. If a loved one dies, you need to make arrangements for the interment so that people can bid the deceased farewell. Interment comes from root words meaning "to place inside," and in this case it's the placing of someone inside the earth, for burial. The Egyptian Pyramids are landmarks of very extravagant interment. At the Chinese Emperor Qin's interment, he had an army of warriors made out of terra cotta buried with him, in case he needed to fight in the afterlife.
Vocabulary lists containing interment
"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
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The Importance of Being Earnest
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Stories of Ourselves
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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:
“Here’s our North Star: Does this help us win?” he said in a mid-December statement announcing his turnabout and the study’s unceremonious interment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
Someone who exhumed a recent interment without that knowledge might well have discovered something difficult to explain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
Military veterans are entitled to interment at a national or state cemetery, but White Tanks becomes the final resting place for hundreds of people annually, with 513 burials there last year.
From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2024
“This moment,” said the Rev. Jesse Wendell Mapson, a local pastor involved in planning the commemoration and interment of the 19, “has not come without some pain, discomfort and tension.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2024
Uncles, aunties, cousins, other grandmas, other grandpas, his mom, and Jason shared stories and pictures of Grandma in the Nazlini Chapter House after the interment.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Neath Port Talbot Council said it was "no longer possible to find suitable space next to earlier interments without risking disturbance to existing remains".
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
The statement called for demarcated and documented individual graves, saying hasty interments could lead to mental anguish for families as well as social and legal problems.
From Reuters ● Sep. 15, 2023
Yates informed her that a law allowing the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs to reconsider interments applied only to those occurring after its enactment in 2013.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
Dedicated in 1848, it boasts more than 120,000 interments that include the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers, paupers and bourbon barons alike.
From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2020
The body of the other received the humble attentions usual upon such interments, as soon as a coffin could be procured.
From Forest Life and Forest Trees: comprising winter camp-life among the loggers, and wild-wood adventure. with Descriptions of lumbering operations on the various rivers of Maine and New Brunswick by Springer, John S.
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.
