mausoleum

[maw-suh-lee-uhm, -zuh-]

noun

plural

mausoleums, mausolea 

1. a stately and magnificent tomb.

2. a burial place for the bodies or remains of many individuals, often of a single family, usually in the form of a small building.

3. a large, gloomy, depressing building, room, or the like.

4. (initial capital letter),  the tomb erected at Halicarnassus in Asia Minor in 350? b.c.

mausoleum

/ ˌmɔːsəˈlɪəm /

noun

1. a large stately tomb

mausoleum

1. A tomb, or a building containing tombs. Mausoleums are often richly decorated. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum.

Other Word Forms

• mausolean adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mausoleum¹

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin < Greek Mausoleîon the tomb of Mausolus, king of Caria

Word History and Origins

Origin of mausoleum¹

C16: via Latin from Greek mausōleion, the tomb of Mausolus, king of Caria; built at Halicarnassus in the 4th century _bc

Example Sentences

A footballing mausoleum of memories and moments, both awe-inspiring and harrowing.

Read more on BBC

Nikita Khrushchev and other top officials watched from atop the red granite mausoleum holding the bodies of the former Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.

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Odinga was buried nearby at his late father's homestead, where there is a family mausoleum.

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Robert Badinter, the justice minister who ended the death penalty in France in 1981, entered the country's Pantheon mausoleum of outstanding historical figures on Thursday, just hours after his grave was vandalised.

Read more on Barron's

My first dispatch was from the mausoleum niche at Pacific View Memorial Park that holds the cremains of one of my predecessors, Ruben Salazar.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• burial 
• cemetery 
• coffin 
• monument 
• vault