sarcophagus
Americannoun
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a stone coffin, especially one bearing sculpture, inscriptions, etc., often displayed as a monument.
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Greek Antiquity. a kind of stone thought to consume the flesh of corpses, used for coffins.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sarcophagus
1595–1605; < Latin < Greek sarkophágos, noun use of the adj.; see sarcophagous
Explanation
If you want to go out in style, buy yourself a sarcophagus — a very fancy coffin usually decorated with elaborate carvings. If King Tut could arrange it, so can you! Sarcophagus comes from the Greek word sarkophagos meaning "limestone used for coffins." But the Greek literally translates to mean "flesh-eating." Seems a bit gruesome, doesn't it? This translation makes sense when you figure that limestone was used in coffins because it quickly decomposed the body. These stone coffins are usually decorated with a sculpture or inscription and date back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Rome, and Greece.
Vocabulary lists containing sarcophagus
Ancient Egypt - Introductory
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Ancient Egypt - Middle School and High School
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Cemetery Boys
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He later helped build the first sarcophagus covering the reactor, as well as the second one, which was damaged by a Russian drone strike in 2025.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
News arrives that, back in Egypt, after a sarcophagus was cast out in a plane crash, Katie turned up inside the coffin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
Inside the mind-blowing 2,000-year-old sarcophagus that was just unsealed.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 25, 2026
They’re lined up like figures on the carved frieze of a Roman sarcophagus, except the slight tilt of the camera has them poised to slide out of the frame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2025
And here’s something you learn when you live in a sarcophagus: sound travels through walls.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Excavations uncovered a funerary complex consisting of three limestone burial chambers containing Roman-era mummies and decorated wooden sarcophagi.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
Among the bronze and marble objects are portraits, over-life-size figures, sarcophagi reliefs and animal sculptures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
The boy-king's priceless collection is yet to be displayed, but visitors can now see items varying from pharaonic statues to sarcophagi and mummified bodies.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2024
Translucent alabaster sarcophagi, the author describes as “curiously alive and attractive.”
From Washington Post ● Sep. 2, 2021
Here in the shop only great sarcophagi were built, and blocks of stone roughhewn to size, ready for the sculptors.
From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
One of the two sarcophaguses was decorated with images of grapes and the other with dolphins said A'utul, whose organisation is supervising the work with help from French aid agency Premiere Urgance International.
From Reuters ● Jul. 24, 2023
Hercules, triumphs of, figured on sarcophaguses, 231 & n.
From Life of John Keats His Life and Poetry, his Friends, Critics and After-fame by Colvin, Sidney
Many words ending in us that formerly were written with only the Latin plural, are now given an English plural also; as, focuses, foci; cactuses, cacti; sarcophaguses, sarcophagi; convolvuluses, convolvuli ; funguses, fungi; nucleuses, nuclei.
From Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking by Bechtel, John Hendricks
Bedford, Duke of, carved sarcophaguses owned by, 231 n.
From Life of John Keats His Life and Poetry, his Friends, Critics and After-fame by Colvin, Sidney
It reminds one of graves, and sarcophaguses, and cemeteries, and horrid things that rustle in coffin cloths, and mop and mow in corners.
From Portia or By Passions Rocked by Duchess
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
