Word.ws English Dictionary

carnary

carnary noun: a crypt, a charnel house.

Noun

carnary (plural carnaries)

  1. A crypt, a charnel house.
    • The rugged walls, which formed the gateway and part of the ancient monastery, in this supposition, must have been the work of Walkelin; the chapel and carnary are evidently of a later date, by more than a century.1809, John Milner, The History Civil and Ecclesiastical, & Suruey of the Antiquities of Winchester, page 89
    • Green relates that Bishop de Blois built a carnary chapel at Worcester, that is, a crypt with a chapel over it; in the former were laid all the bodies disinterred during the restoration of the cathedral; in the latter, chaplains said service, and Walter de Cantelupe, bishop in 1265, consecrated it...1859 November, “Crypt at Christchurch, Hants”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 207, page 500

Examples of carnary in a sentence

  • In the latter were buried Sir John Wodehouse, in 1430, and his wife, whose skeletons were found entire in 1850, when the carnary was rescued from the ignoble use of a wine cellar.1878, Our Own Country, page 10:
  • The Carnary College was founded by bishop Salmon in 1316 with four priests (six after 1322) to pray for him and other bishops of Norwich and to preserve bones in the chapel crypt (carnary or charnel).1996, Anthony Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500, page 135:

Forms of carnary

pluralcarnaries

Origin of carnary

From Latin carnarium, from caro, carnis (“flesh”).

Questions about carnary

What does carnary mean?
Carnary means a crypt, a charnel house.
How do you use carnary in a sentence?
In the latter were buried Sir John Wodehouse, in 1430, and his wife, whose skeletons were found entire in 1850, when the carnary was rescued from the ignoble use of a wine cellar.
What part of speech is carnary?
Carnary is a noun.
What is the plural of carnary?
The plural of carnary is carnaries.

Words near carnary in the dictionary

  1. carnaptious
  2. carnaries
  3. carnaroli
  4. Carnarvon
  5. Carnarvonshire
  6. carnary
  7. carnassial
  8. carnassials
  9. carnate
  10. Carnathan
  11. Carnathans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carnary (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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