sepulchre

/ˈsɛpəlkər/

/ˈsɛpəlkə/

Other forms: sepulchres

There are many possible resting places for your body once you die, and a sepulcher is the best option if you want a fancy room made entirely from stone. Think it over, because you can only choose once.

Crypts, mausoleums, sarcophagi, sepulchers: each one is a place to bury someone, with slight variations. A sepulcher (or if you’re British you’ll spell it sepulchre) is basically a stone room with a stone coffin where your body lies. The word comes from the Latin sepulcrum, which means “burial place,” for obvious reasons. Pronouncing sepulcher could trick you, because the ch actually sounds like a k: "SEP-ul-ker."

Definitions of sepulchre

1. noun

   a chamber that is used as a grave
   synonyms: burial chamber, sepulcher, 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)