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

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.

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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

Lubin is alert to the various ways that “Sunset Boulevard” doesn’t just observe Old Hollywood but serves as its mausoleum.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

When Willie Lincoln, the third son of President Lincoln, died at age 11 of typhoid fever, he was interred in a mausoleum in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“He goes, ‘I just want to make sure you’re going to be in our group family mausoleum,’” she said on the podcast.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• burial 
• cemetery 
• coffin 
• monument 
• vault