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columbarium

noun

Definition of columbariumnext
as in mausoleum

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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 columbarium Later, the victims’ ashes were interred in a modest columbarium that the priest had built in a Catholic cemetery. — Sheila Coronel, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2026 And the columbarium would have been open to all Irvine residents, with priority given to veterans. — Victoria Le, Oc Register, 16 Jan. 2026 When the base closed, the land passed to the city of Alameda, but one corner was retained by the VA to build a new 158,000-square-foot outpatient clinic and columbarium as a final resting place for Bay Area veterans. — John Ramos, CBS News, 16 Dec. 2025 And columbaria – the plural for columbarium – are on the rise in the Diocese of Nashville. — Laura L. Davis, Nashville Tennessean, 27 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for columbarium
Recent Examples of Synonyms for columbarium
  1. mausoleum
  2. crypt
  3. vault
  4. catacomb
  5. tomb
  6. cemetery
  7. charnel
  8. burial
Noun
  • The mausoleum, measuring 55 feet along each side and 16 feet high, is approximately 600 years old, dating to a period just before or possibly during the Inca conquest of the region in the mid-1400s.
    — Francesca Aton, ARTnews.com, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Then in January 2026, according to police, a potential family member reached out to police and said the mausoleum and grave of a relative at Riverview Cemetery were unlawfully desecrated in 2002.
    — David Chiu, PEOPLE, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of mausoleum
Noun
  • Janine Mullen Zozaya makes a visit to the crypt of Father William Atkinson.
    — Joe Holden, CBS News, 15 Sep. 2026
  • At Penzing Studios, the open-air museum at Bad Windsheim, the fortress at Lichtenau, and sites in Nuremberg, the production found medieval stonework, corridors, chapels, crypts, and staircases suited to the royal court.
    — JP Mangalindan, Time, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of crypt
Noun
  • The mayor said the suspect used a 9-mm pistol belonging to his father, a Department of Education employee, after breaking into a vault where the firearm had been stored and bringing it to school.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Behind a vault door is a hidden passage leading to a former speakeasy.
    — Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of vault
Noun
  • During the tournament, access to the space, which is taking over a catacomb once used by players for warmups, has been floated at $120,000 per person.
    — Ben Ryder Howe, Curbed, 21 Aug. 2026
  • But passing motorists largely knew nothing of the collection of handmade replica of catacombs, Biblical scenes and Israelite villages beneath it.
    — Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of catacomb
Noun
  • Last year, the museum returned fragments of a silk manuscript from China that dated to more than 2,000 years ago and had been looted from a tomb.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Back then, the town was a rural, rapidly industrializing fringe of Hangzhou with a largely undeveloped archaeological site that featured Neolithic tombs and settlements buried deep beneath farmland.
    — Afra Wang, New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of tomb
Noun
  • The group then reconvened at the Glendale cemetery, where a priest said prayers over the casket, which was gently lowered into the ground as teary-eyed friends and family members watched.
    — Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2026
  • The site was once the cemetery of the Brooklyn Naval Hospital.
    — Hannah Kliger, CBS News, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of cemetery
Noun
  • One is a charnel house dominated by Daniel Day-Lewis’s Bill the Butcher, a man with unnerving knife skills.
    — New York Times, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2026
  • This was also the case in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which abandoned the novel’s complex (and, importantly, entertaining) moral quandaries in favor of a clock tower colossus doubling as a steam punk charnel house.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 25 Feb. 2026
Definition of charnel
Noun
  • Unlike in mainland China, Hong Kong runs on a common-law system, which means a jury will decide whether the trio should be found guilty ofChoi’s murder and of preventing the lawful burial of her body.
    — Chris Lau, CNN Money, 21 Sep. 2026
  • They were also charged with preventing the lawful burial of a body.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of burial

Browse Nearby Words

columbaria
columbarium
column
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Cite this Entry

“Columbarium.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/columbarium. Accessed 27 Sep. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on columbarium

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about columbarium

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