crypt

noun \ ˈkript \

|Updated on: 15 Jun 2018

Examples: crypt in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of crypt

1 a : a chamber (such as a vault) wholly or partly underground; especially : a vault under the main floor of a church

b : a chamber in a mausoleum

2 a : an anatomical pit or depression

b : a simple tubular gland

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Examples of crypt in a Sentence

the old church's crypt is the final resting place for the president and his beloved wife

Recent Examples of crypt from the Web

The inspiration is an ossuary, the crypts of the cardinals, of the monks in the 15th century, and the precious decorations.

— lauren alexis fisher, Harper's BAZAAR, "Gucci's Cruise 2019 Runway Was On Fire—Literally," 31 May 2018
The inspiration is an ossuary, the crypts of the cardinals, of the monks in the 15th century, and the precious decorations.

— sarah spellings, The Cut, "9 References to Death in Gucci’s Cruise Show," 31 May 2018
Nearby are the crypts of Unknowns from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

— dawn mitchell, Indianapolis Star, "Hoosier Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was a 'haunting obligation'," 25 May 2018
The four are believed to lie in crypts within the Valley of the Fallen, a controversial neoclassical mausoleum northwest of Madrid where thousands of victims in the 1936-1939 were buried alongside the remains of Franco himself.

— Fox News, "Spain resumes controversial exhumations near Franco's tomb," 23 Apr. 2018
The four are believed to lie in crypts within the Valley of the Fallen, a controversial neoclassical mausoleum northwest of Madrid where more than 33,000 victims from both sides of the 1936-1939 war are buried alongside Franco’s remains.

— Washington Post, "Spain resumes controversial exhumations near Franco’s tomb," 23 Apr. 2018
The four are believed to lie in crypts within the Valley of the Fallen, a controversial neoclassical mausoleum northwest of Madrid where more than 33,000 victims from both sides of the 1936-1939 war are buried alongside Franco’s remains.

— aritz parra, The Seattle Times, "Spain resumes controversial exhumations near Franco’s tomb," 23 Apr. 2018
According to a press release, the poet was originally buried in the crypt of the Highgate School Chapel in north London.

— jason daley, Smithsonian, "Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Casket Rediscovered in Former Wine Cellar," 18 Apr. 2018
The immediate and extended family of Martin Luther King, Jr. gathered at his crypt to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his assassination.

— ajc homepage, ajc, "ICYMI: Ex-city official indicted, missing CDC worker’s body found, a somber anniversary," 7 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'crypt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Hidden under the main floor of a great church is often a large room, often with a tomb as its centerpiece. Many major European churches were built over the remains of a saint—the Vatican's great St. Peter's Basilica is an example—and instead of having the coffin buried, it was often given its spacious room below ground level. In a large aboveground tomb, or mausoleum, there may be several small chambers for individual coffins, also called crypts; when the comic book Tales from the Crypt made its first appearance in 1950, it was this meaning that the authors were referring to.

Origin and Etymology of crypt

borrowed from Latin crypta, crupta "covered passage, underground room," borrowed from Greek kryptḗ "underground room," noun derivative from feminine of kryptós "hidden, secret," verbal adjective of krýptein "to hide, conceal," of uncertain origin

Note: The verb krýptein is phonetically and semantically close to kalýptein "to cover, conceal," and the two may have influenced each other. Other forms with which krýptein has been compared, such as Old Church Slavic kryjǫ, kryti "to cover, hide, shroud," Lithuanian kráuju, kráuti "to pile up," are too distant phonetically to allow realistic reconstruction of an Indo-European verbal base. The alternation in consonants between kryp- (in krýptein, kryptós), kryb- (in krýbdēn "secretly"), and kryph- (in kryphêi "in secret," -kryphos "hidden") is apparently the result of both assimilation and analogy.

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1583

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year