ossuary
- a place or receptacle for the bones of the dead.
Origin of ossuary
Examples from the Web for ossuary
Contemporary Examples of ossuary
The French cemetery at Notre Dame de Lorette has 20,000 named graves and an ossuary with 20,000 unknown dead.
Historical Examples of ossuary
The Magdalenians have passed through this ossuary and have drawn out all the canine teeth to make ornaments of them.
Men of the Old Stone AgeHenry Fairfield Osborn
Ossuary, os′ū-ar-i, n. a place where the bones of the dead are deposited: a charnel-house.
I love to go to his ossuary of dead transactions, as I would visit the catacombs of Rome or Paris.
The Poet at the Breakfast TableOliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
After a time the body is taken up, the bones cleaned, and deposited in an ossuary called the Quiogozon.
Bonaparte stopped near the Ossuary, and desired to be shown the spot where the battle of Morat was fought.
Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, CompleteLouis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
ossuary
- any container for the burial of human bones, such as an urn or vault
Word Origin for ossuary
Word Origin and History for ossuary
"urn for the bones of the dead," 1650s, from Late Latin ossuarium "charnel house," from neuter of Latin ossuarius "of bones," from Latin os (plural ossua) "bone" (see osseous) on model of mortuarium.