disinter

American  

[dis-in-tur] / ˌdɪs ɪnˈtɜr /

verb (used with object)

• disinters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• disinterred,
  past participle,  past
• disinterring
  present participle

1. to take out of the place of interment; exhume; unearth.

2. to bring from obscurity into view.

   The actor's autobiography disinterred a past era.

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disinter British  

/ ˌdɪsɪnˈtɜː /

verb

1. to remove or dig up; exhume

2. to bring (a secret, hidden facts, etc) to light; expose

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• disinterment
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• disinterring
  present
• disinterred
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• disinter
  simple
• disinters
  simple
• have disinterred
  perfect
• has disinterred
  perfect
• am disinterring
  progressive
• are disinterring
  progressive
• is disinterring
  progressive
• have been disinterring
  perfect progressive
• has been disinterring
  perfect progressive

Past

• disinterred
  simple
• had disinterred
  perfect
• was disinterring
  progressive
• were disinterring
  progressive
• had been disinterring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will disinter
  simple
• will have disinterred
  perfect
• will be disinterring
  progressive
• will have been disinterring
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of disinter

First recorded in 1605–15; dis- ¹ + inter

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Explanation

To "inter" a body is to bury it or place it in a mausoleum, so to disinter someone is to take the body out again — usually to find out how they died, to make sure it's really who we think it is, or to move the body to a new burial site. You might think you got away with murder, but once they disinter the body, the medical examiners will find out that the guy was a victim of your evil plot. A vampire sleeps all day in his own coffin and then disinters himself at night to go in search of blood. One way to remember the meaning of disinter is to think of "dis-entering" a body. When someone dies, their body is "entered" into the grave. If the body is removed, it's being "dis-entered," in a sense. But disinter is spelled — and pronounced — differently (diss-in-TUR), of course.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

disinter disinters disinterred disinterring

Robert Gould Shaw’s parents rejected offers to disinter his remains.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Ingrid Rojas Contreras goes on to explore her family’s history as curanderos — South American shamans like her grandfather, whose bones the family decides to disinter in accordance with his spectral request.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2022

Earlier this year, an Arlington official responded, saying the Army did not have the legal authority to disinter Chabrol.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 28, 2022

To fully identify graves, remains, and identities, researchers must also gather records, collect oral histories, and possibly disinter bodies — and it's not clear yet if communities will want to take the final painful step.

From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2022

As though he could disinter it by force.

From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner

Back at Sayyida Nafisa cemetery, Iman remains distraught as she disinters her relatives.

From BBC ● May 26, 2023

What is also apparent is that Glam! disinters a past that has never been buried.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 6, 2013

Snapped Connor: "Now Mr. Waugh, in the role of an eager exhumer, disinters the corpse and with busy spade and blazing arclights, goes smartly to work in the graveyard of the past."

From Time Magazine Archive

What kind of ideological ghoul disinters the dead and uses them for purposes they did not believe in while they lived?

From Time Magazine Archive

The old chief accomplishes his object, disinters his father's bones, and returns to fetch Rosa, and proceed with her to his new home in the country of the Comanches.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 369, July 1846 by Various

Think a disinterred Ross Perot, hastily dusted off.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

Some reports claimed remains housed there had been disinterred.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025

Allen was among 388 service members whose remains went unidentified before a 2015 program in which bodies were disinterred for DNA analysis.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2023

In June 2021, the U.S. disinterred the remains of 652 unidentified Korean War casualties buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

From Washington Times ● May 19, 2023

Like those disinterred dead from his childhood that had been relocated to accommodate a highway.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Another is a pungent work of terror about a cursed man who inexplicably perishes in the village’s crypt, forcing the townspeople to investigate by disinterring the bodies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

The Department of Defense had undertaken the arduous task of disinterring and sorting through the commingled skeletons.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2024

After the war, American teams began disinterring those remains and trying to identify them.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2022

The celebration is believed to have its roots in the Uru Chipaya custom of disinterring the bodies of loved ones at the one-year anniversary of their death.

From Reuters ● Nov. 9, 2021

In the years between the First World War and the disinterring of Luigi Boccherini’s bones, music’s family had expanded prolifically.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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