cemetery
/ˈsɛmɪtri
/noun (plural cemeteries)
A large burial ground, especially one not in a churchyard: a military cemetery...
- Funerals are held in churches, and burials are in churchyards or public cemeteries.
- To her horror, she found there was no official record of James's burial in the cemetery.
- Having looked in the local churchyards and cemeteries, I can find no trace of any Jacksons.
Synonyms
graveyard, churchyard, burial ground, burial place, burying place, burying ground, garden of remembrance;
Scottish kirkyard;
North American memorial park
informal boneyard
literary golgotha
historical urnfield, potter's field, catacomb, necropolis
archaic God's acre
Origin
Late Middle English: via late Latin from Greek koimētērion 'dormitory', from koiman 'put to sleep'.
A cemetery is literally a place for sleeping. The word came from Greek koimētērion, ‘dormitory’, from koiman ‘to put to sleep’. It was early Christian writers who first gave it the meaning of ‘burial ground’, applying it to the underground cemeteries or catacombs in Rome.