Definitions

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

  • noun A heap of combustibles for burning a corpse as a funeral rite.
  • noun A pile of combustibles.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pile or heap of wood or other combustible materials for burning a dead body; a funeral pile.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt.

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

  • noun A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which corpses are burned.
  • noun Any heap or pile of combustibles.

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

  • noun wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin pyra, from Greek purā, from pūr, fire; see paəwr̥ in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin pyra ("pyre, funeral pile"), from Ancient Greek πυρά (pura), from πῦρ (pūr, "fire"), from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂ur. Etymological twin to fire.

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