ossuary

[ osh-oo-er-ee, os- ]

/ ˈɒʃ uˌɛr i, ˈɒs- /

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noun, plural os·su·ar·ies.

a place or receptacle for the bones of the dead.

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Also ossuarium.

Origin of ossuary

1650–60; <Late Latin ossuārium, variant of ossārium, equivalent to oss- (stem of os) bone + -ārium-ary

Words nearby ossuary

ossify, Ossining, osso bucco, ossobuco, ossuarium, ossuary, OST, O star, oste-, osteal, ostectomy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use ossuary in a sentence

The French cemetery at Notre Dame de Lorette has 20,000 named graves and an ossuary with 20,000 unknown dead.
Geoff Dyer's 'The Missing of the Somme' Reconsidered|Louisa Thomas|November 11, 2011|DAILY BEAST
Ossuary, os′ū-ar-i, n. a place where the bones of the dead are deposited: a charnel-house.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R)|Various
After a time the body is taken up, the bones cleaned, and deposited in an ossuary called the Quiogozon.
A further contribution to the study of the mortuary customs of the North American Indians|H. C. Yarrow
They are probably now in the catacombs of Paris, mingled with those of the thousands of unknown or paupers in that great ossuary.
Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution|Alpheus Spring Packard

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 Table|Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
In the middle, an open ossuary contains skeletons that have been exhumed in order to make room for other corpses.
Over Strand and Field|Gustave Flaubert

British Dictionary definitions for ossuary

ossuary

/ (ˈɒsjʊərɪ) /

noun plural -aries

any container for the burial of human bones, such as an urn or vault

Word Origin for ossuary

C17: from Late Latin ossuārium, from Latin os bone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

ossuary

Origin of ossuary

Words nearby ossuary

Words related to ossuary

How to use ossuary in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for ossuary

Word Origin for ossuary