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
  • 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
  • Newspaper reports from 2002 indicated the coffin in the mausoleum had been smashed open, and remains were then taken from the site.
    — Joe Brandt, CBS News, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of mausoleum
Noun
  • The Boulet Brothers descend on New York Comic Con to celebrate a decade of horror, filth, and glamour, and open the crypt on the show’s upcoming seventh season.
    — Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Aug. 2026
  • 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
Definition of crypt
Noun
  • Pole vault world record holder Mondo Duplantis will be in Hungary, but the highlights are arguably the middle-distance events.
    — Liam Tharme, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
  • That makes ancient, intact peatlands a carbon vault up to 50 feet (15 meters) deep in some parts of the world.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 9 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
  • In 2023, scientists used a portable MA-XRF imaging device to study ancient Egyptian paintings, part of a broader project investigating tomb chapels in the Theban Necropolis.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 11 Sep. 2026
  • The tomb dates to the late 2nd century bce, demonstrating that a version of The Art of War closely resembling the text known today was in circulation by that time.
    — Ethan Teekah, Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of tomb
Noun
  • Occupying the sacred space between Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, the Great Triumphal Arch will stand 250 feet tall, two and half times taller than Lincoln’s memorial and big enough to obscure views of the cemetery.
    — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Ewa Mroczkowska’s production design also turns dewy embankments, decadent interiors, and sunrises over cemeteries into visions of storybook-like decay.
    — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 5 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
  • The suit is seeking yet-unspecified damages to help cover burial and funeral costs.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Since May, health workers and burial teams such as Adolphe's have been attacked by bereaved families across the front line of the outbreak.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 7 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 13 Sep. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on columbarium

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about columbarium

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