Definitions

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

  • noun A container or receptacle, such as an urn or a vault, for holding the bones of the dead.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A place where the bones of the dead are deposited; a charnel-house.
  • noun A vase, casket, or other vessel for the reception of the bones or calcined remains of the dead.
  • noun A bone-cave, or deposit formed largely of bones, belonging to late geological times.

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

  • noun obsolete A place where the bones of the dead are deposited; a charnel house.

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

  • noun A container or receptacle, such as an urn or vault, for holding the bones of the dead.

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

  • noun any receptacle for the burial of human bones

Etymologies

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

[Late Latin ossuārium, from neuter of Latin ossuārius, of bones, from os, oss-, bone; see ost- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin ossuārium ("charnel house"), from ossuārius ("of or for bones"), from compound of Latin os ("bone") + adjectival suffix -ārius ("of, related to").

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Examples

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  • The Lost Tomb of Jesus

    March 5, 2007

  • This word was also used in the book version of "The Name Of The Rose."

    June 24, 2012