Charnel House (Noun)
Meaning
A vault or building where corpses or bones are deposited.
Classification
Nouns denoting man-made objects.
Examples
- The ancient church had a charnel house beneath its floor where the remains of centuries of parishioners were interred.
- During the plague, the city's charnel house was filled to capacity, and new mass graves had to be dug outside the city walls.
- The charnel house in the cemetery was a grim reminder of the town's dark history and the many lives lost to disease and war.
- After the battle, the charnel house was used to store the bodies of the fallen soldiers until they could be identified and claimed by their families.
- The charnel house beneath the cathedral was discovered during renovations, its contents a jumble of ancient bones and dusty relics.