ossuary
ossuary — noun
- ossuarysingular
- ossuariesplural
1. a container, room, or building used for holding human bones, especially after mo
a container, room, or building used for holding human bones, especially after moving them from an earlier grave to free up space in a cemetery
Dr. Hamza uncovered a first-century ossuary carved with floral patterns during the excavation near Jericho.
archaeological context: first-century ossuary with carvings
Tuan showed his students how the catacomb ossuary held thousands of early Christian remains.
collocation: catacomb ossuary
Workers moved old skeletons to the ossuary behind the church to free up burial space.
Min studied the Aramaic inscription on a limestone ossuary displayed at the national museum.
Mateo carefully numbered each bone fragment as the team removed it from the ancient ossuary.
- charnel house
broader term — refers to any building where corpses or bones are stored, not just bones alone; more common in historical writing about medieval Europe
- bone vault
less formal than ossuary; describes the same concept in plainer language, often used in tour guides or popular history
- columbarium
a room or building with niches for funeral urns — specifically holds cremated ashes, not whole bones
文法句型
countable
用法筆記
Countable noun. An ossuary may refer to anything from a small box to an entire room or building. The term is not used for cremation urns (which are called 'cinerary urns' or 'columbaria').