- a burial vault, tomb, or grave
- Also called: Easter sepulchre a separate alcove in some medieval churches in which the Eucharistic elements were kept from Good Friday until the Easter ceremonies
- (transitive) to bury in a sepulchre
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
sep•ul•cher
(sep′əl kər),USA pronunciation n.
v.t.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- a tomb, grave, or burial place.
- ReligionAlso called Easter sepulcher. [Eccles.]
- a cavity in a mensa for containing relics of martyrs.
- Religiona structure or a recess in some old churches in which the Eucharist was deposited with due ceremonies on Good Friday and taken out at Easter in commemoration of Christ's entombment and Resurrection.
v.t.
- to place in a sepulcher;
bury.
- Latin sepulcrum, equivalent. to sepul- (variant stem of sepelīre to bury) + -crum noun, nominal suffix of place
- Old French
- Middle English sepulcre 1150–1200
- 1. vault, mausoleum, crypt.
sep•ul•chre
(sep′əl kər),USA pronunciation n., v.t., -chred, -chring. [Chiefly Brit.]
- British Termssepulcher.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
sepulchre, US sepulcher /ˈsɛpəlkə/ n
'sepulcher' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
sepulchre
- deathly
- Easter sepulcher
- ensepulcher
- grave
- hajji
- Holy Sepulcher
- monument
- Pantheon
- repository
- whited sepulcher
- sepulchral
- sepulture