tomb

American  

[toom] / tum /

noun

1. an excavation in earth or rock for the burial of a corpse; grave.

2. a mausoleum, burial chamber, or the like.

3. a monument for housing or commemorating a dead person.

4. any sepulchral structure.

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verb (used with object)

1. to place in or as if in a tomb; entomb; bury.

tomb British  

/ tuːm /

noun

1. a place, esp a vault beneath the ground, for the burial of a corpse

2. a stone or other monument to the dead

3. a poetic term for death

4. anything serving as a burial place

   the sea was his tomb

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verb

1. rare (tr) to place in a tomb; entomb

Other Word Forms

• tombal adjective
• tombless adjective
• tomblike adjective
• untombed adjective

Etymology

Origin of tomb

1225–75; Middle English tumbe < Anglo-French; Old French tombe < Late Latin tumba < Greek týmbos burial mound; akin to Latin tumēre to swell. See tumor, tumulus

Example Sentences

Mary Ann Pajo watched quietly as cemetery workers opened her son's tomb in Manila this week and removed his body for examination by a forensic pathologist.

From Barron's

They would wander in the endless night until they died, and the Mountain would be their tomb.

From Literature

The earl of Arundel’s tomb expresses the grim realities beneath the era’s facade of chivalry: Above, he is depicted resplendent in full armor; below, as a gaunt cadaver.

From The Wall Street Journal

He sometimes climbs the hill to a white tomb believed to be Behzad's, where he finds peace.

From Barron's

He hopes to see the mosque, which houses the tomb of a Sufi sheikh, host a traditional music festival when the renovation is complete, "in five months".

From Barron's

Related Words

• burial
• coffin
• mausoleum
• monument
• pit
• vault