sepulcher

/ˈsɛpəlkər/

Other forms: sepulchers

A sepulcher is a burial vault or tomb, like the one that is featured prominently in the final scenes of Romeo and Juliet. (Of course, for those who haven’t read the play yet, we’re not suggesting that anyone dies, necessarily.)

Sepulchers often appear in literature, probably because they instantly convey sadness, spookiness, and all sorts of other unpleasant emotions. For example, Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” tells the story of the narrator's true love, who now lies “[i]n the sepulcher there by the sea.” When reading "Annabel Lee," Romeo and Juliet, and other similarly depressing works aloud, note that sepulcher is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable.

Definitions of sepulcher

1. noun

   a chamber that is used as a grave
   synonyms: burial chamber, sepulchre, sepulture

   examples:

   Holy Sepulcher

   the sepulcher in which Christ's body lay between burial and resurrection

   types:

   crypt

   a cellar or vault or underground burial chamber (especially beneath a church)

   mausoleum

   a large burial chamber, usually above ground

   monument, repository

   a burial vault (usually for some famous person)

   burial vault, vault

   a burial chamber (usually underground)

   charnel, charnel house

   a vault or building where corpses or bones are deposited

   columbarium

   a sepulchral vault or other structure having recesses in the walls to receive cinerary urns

   type of:

   chamber

   a natural or artificial enclosed space

   grave, tomb

   a place for the burial of a corpse (especially beneath the ground and marked by a tombstone)