charnel

noun

variants also charnel house
Definition of charnelnext
as in tomb

Related Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of charnel Thousands of homes and a sprawl of entire neighborhoods were transformed into outdoor charnel houses. — Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 10 Jan. 2025 For the Himalayan monks of the early teen centuries, the ideal setting for initiation was a charnel ground, where people left their dead to be eaten by wild animals. — Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 2 Jan. 2025 His third-floor office, in a dingy concrete building across a roaring four-lane road from the Ikeja market, is a charnel house of dead mobile phones. — Vince Beiser, WIRED, 30 Nov. 2024 Out of this charnel house where an American flag hung at one end, technicians hoped to identify 388 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma. — Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2024 See All Example Sentences for charnel
Recent Examples of Synonyms for charnel
  1. tomb
  2. crypt
  3. vault
  4. sepulchre
  5. coffin
  6. sarcophagus
Noun
  • This tomb, and others in Sardinia, was built as a collective burial site around 1800 BCE by the Nuragic people.
    — Leigh Anne Miller for ARTnews, Robb Report, 8 Aug. 2026
  • The same year that the Lincoln Memorial was inaugurated, the tomb of Tutankhamum was discovered in Egypt, fueling a broader fascination with ancient civilizations, monuments and the ways societies preserved memories of powerful figures.
    — Jennifer Tucker, The Conversation, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of tomb
Noun
  • Call it the canary yellow uniforms in the coal mine — except the Red Sox have shot up the elevator shaft, bursting from their subterranean crypt.
    — Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 20 July 2026
  • The hotel reopened in late 2025 as a 28-room property with a subterranean spa housing indoor and outdoor pools, two indoor saunas, a steam room and a hammam, all carved into what was once the monastery’s cellar and crypt.
    — Winston Ross, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
Definition of crypt
Noun
  • Individual apparatus leads include Patrick Hoopes on pommel horse, Asher Cohen on still rings, Yul Moldauer on parallel bars, Cooper Kim on high bar, and Kameron Nelson on vault, setting up an exciting final day.
    — Caroline Price, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026
  • The organization, which is responsible for cleaning up the messes after superhero battles, has something that Jean wants locked inside a vault.
    — Jordan Moreau, Variety, 31 July 2026
Definition of vault
Noun
  • The Enclave, Buick’s large, three-row crossover, has been redesigned for 2018, allowing the automaker to finally place its predecessor in a sepulchre and seal the entrance.
    — Al Haas, Philly.com, 28 June 2018
  • The Garden Tomb, is believed by many to be the garden and sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, and therefore a possible site of the resurrection of Jesus.
    — Joe Yudin, Town & Country, 5 Oct. 2016
Definition of sepulchre
Noun
  • The excavation, carried out by an Egyptian archaeological mission under the supervision of the SCA, also uncovered pottery coffins, as well as a collection of incense burners, oil lamps, and funerary amulets.
    — Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 31 July 2026
  • Investigators found his ashes in a brown paper bag on the floor of the funeral director’s premises more than a year after Bush handed her a little blue coffin and told her Sunny’s ashes were inside.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 31 July 2026
Definition of coffin
Noun
  • This month, the hospital granted rare access to reporters from the Associated Press, allowing them into rooms that lie on either side of the centerpiece of Les Invalides, a soaring mausoleum that holds Napoleon’s sarcophagus.
    — Sylvie Corbet, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2026
  • This month, the hospital granted rare access to reporters from The Associated Press, allowing them into rooms that lie on either side of the centerpiece of Les Invalides, a soaring mausoleum that holds Napoleon's sarcophagus.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 May 2026
Definition of sarcophagus

Browse Nearby Words

charms
charnel
charnels
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Charnel.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/charnel. Accessed 10 Aug. 2026.

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