burial

IPA/ˈberiəl/
KK[bˈɛriəl]IPA/ˈberiəl/

burial — noun

  • burialsingular
  • burialsplural

1. the event of laying a dead person in a grave, and the funeral service that goes

1.nounC2
Definition

the event of laying a dead person in a grave, and the funeral service that goes with it

Example

The burial took place beside the old church after the final prayer.

the burial took place

Noa missed school to attend her grandfather's burial at the small cemetery on the hill.

Common collocations
  • burial ground
  • burial site
  • burial customs
  • state burial
  • proper burial
Synonyms
  • funeral

    broader and often includes the whole ceremony before the grave-side event

  • interment

    more formal and common in official or written contexts

  • laying to rest

    a gentler phrase used for respectful or emotional tone

Antonyms
  • exhumation

    the later removal of a buried body from the grave

Grammar Patterns

the burial of + person/body

burial at sea

burial in + place

Usage Note

Often appears in patterns such as burial of somebody, burial at sea, and burial site. In everyday speech, funeral is more common when the focus is the whole ceremony rather than the moment the body is placed in the grave.

Common Mistakes

The family held the burial in the city hall, and the coffin went to the cemetery later.
The family held the funeral in the city hall, and the burial happened later at the cemetery.
funeral can mean the whole ceremony; burial focuses on the grave-side part or the act of placing the body in the grave.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Burial focuses on placing a dead body in the ground and on the service around that final act. Funeral is wider: it can include the whole event, such as the service in a hall, the journey to the cemetery, and the burial itself. Interment is a formal word often seen in notices, records, and cemetery rules. Cremation is not a synonym, but a contrasting way of dealing with a dead body, since the body is burned instead of buried. If a notice says the funeral begins at ten and the burial follows at noon, the two words are naming different parts of the day. A cemetery worker may write interment in a record, but a family member will usually say burial.

burial ↗funeral ↗interment ↗cremation ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • burial at sea
  • state burial
  • proper burial

Prepositions

  • burial of
  • burial in

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Burial is an English noun built from bury with the ending -al. The older verb bury comes from Old English, so the word has long been tied to the idea of putting a dead person into the ground.