Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A building, room, or vault in which the bones or bodies of the dead are placed; a charnel.
  • noun A scene or place of great physical suffering and loss of life.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A place, usually under or near a church, where the bones of the dead are deposited; formerly, and still in parts of Brittany, a kind of portico or gallery, in or near a churchyard, over which the bones of the dead were laid after the flesh was consumed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a vault or other building in which the bones of the dead are stored

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a vault or building where corpses or bones are deposited

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word charnel house.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.