sepulchre
Americannoun
noun
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a burial vault, tomb, or grave
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Also called: Easter sepulchre. a separate alcove in some medieval churches in which the Eucharistic elements were kept from Good Friday until the Easter ceremonies
verb
Etymology
Origin of sepulchre
C12: from Old French sépulcre, from Latin sepulcrum, from sepelīre to bury
Explanation
There are many possible resting places for your body once you die, and a sepulcher is the best option if you want a fancy room made entirely from stone. Think it over, because you can only choose once. Crypts, mausoleums, sarcophagi, sepulchers: each one is a place to bury someone, with slight variations. A sepulcher (or if you’re British you’ll spell it sepulchre) is basically a stone room with a stone coffin where your body lies. The word comes from the Latin sepulcrum, which means “burial place,” for obvious reasons. Pronouncing sepulcher could trick you, because the ch actually sounds like a k: "SEP-ul-ker."
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:
In some accounts he is buried with his wife and two children next to the tomb of Jesus — the ultimate martyr’s sepulchre.
From Time ● Mar. 30, 2016
It depicts a stern risen Christ on the edge of a sepulchre; the city's name means "holy sepulchre" in Italian.
From Reuters ● Nov. 16, 2014
Maurice, meanwhile, is terrified of mouldering in respectable suburbia, dragging some poor virgin into the sepulchre with him.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 5, 2013
Veneration for the sepulchre and reverence for the dead belong to the most ancient instincts of the human race.
From Time Magazine Archive
With the crackling warmth of the fire and the smell of purifying incense the room seemed less of a sepulchre.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Yet, strange to say, when Darwin died, instead of being buried in some quiet Kentish cemetery or churchyard, he was actually sepulchred in Westminster Abbey.
From Flowers of Freethought (Second Series) by Foote, G. W. (George William)
The Brook Farmers have nearly all joined the congregation of the beyond, but they are sepulchred in the four quarters of the globe.
From My Friends at Brook Farm by Sears, John Van Der Zee
Bury him kindly—up in the corner; Bird, beast, and gold-fish are sepulchred there; Bid the black kitten march as chief mourner, Waving her tail like a plume in the air.
From Verses for Children and Songs for Music by Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty
It is the woman sepulchred in a small village who finds herself most severely handicapped.
From Journalism for Women A Practical Guide by Bennett, Arnold
Thus thy spirit grew faint, thy strength dried up, and the dust of thy scribes has sepulchred thee, a living mummy….
From The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1743-1885) by Slouschz, Nahum
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.
