charnel
[tʃɑːnəl]US[tʃɑːɹnəl]
charnel noun: a chapel attached to a mortuary.
Noun (1)
charnel (plural charnels)
- A chapel attached to a mortuary.
- A repository for dead bodies.
- When Lazarus left his charnel-cave,
And home to Mary’s house return’d,
Was this demanded—if he yearn’d
To hear her weeping by his grave?1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 50
- When Lazarus left his charnel-cave,
Adjective
charnel (comparative more charnel, superlative most charnel)
- Of or relating to a charnel, deathlike, sepulchral.
- He murmured to himself with dull despair,
Here Faith died, poisoned by this charnel air.1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night
- He murmured to himself with dull despair,
Noun (2)
charnel (plural charnels)
- Part of a helm, now usually identified as the hinge (near the neck) by which the helm was secured to the breastplate.
- The knight did as he was desired, and broke his spear twice on the very charnel of his helmet. It being now Sir William Cecil's turn, each knight charged his spear directly towards the other's head, and galloping on, both lances[…]1836, George Payne Rainsford James, Darnley, Or the Field of the Cloth of Gold, page 134
- 1 Are these the charnels, or pinnacles of helmets? See Meyrick, […]1836, Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, page 401
Forms of charnel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | charnels |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more charnel |
| superlative | most charnel |
Origin of charnel
From Middle English charnel, from Old French charnel, carnel, from Late Latin carnāle (“graveyard”), from Latin carnālis, or possibly an alteration of Anglo-Norman charner, from Medieval Latin carnārium (“charnel”). Displaced Middle English fleshusse, from Old English flǣsċhūs.
From Old French charnel, from Latin cardinālis (“relating to a hinge”); related to French charnière.
Words formed from charnel
Phrases with charnel
Words that rhyme with charnel
Questions about charnel
- What does charnel mean?
- Charnel means a chapel attached to a mortuary.
- What part of speech is charnel?
- Charnel can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce charnel?
- Charnel is pronounced [tʃɑːɹnəl] (US).
- What is the plural of charnel?
- The plural of charnel is charnels.
Words near charnel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: charnel (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-charnel.wav.
Cite this entry: “charnel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/charnel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.