columbarium

UK/ˌkɒləmˈbɛəɹi.əm/US/ˌkɑləmˈbɛri.əm/

columbarium noun: a columbary, especially a large and architecturally impressive one for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves, such as those in ancien régime France.

Image: Kerry, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

columbarium (plural columbariums or columbaria)

(historical) A columbary, especially a large and architecturally impressive one for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves, such as those in ancien régime France.
- Meronym: pigeonhole
- Near-synonyms: dovecote, pigeon loft
Synonyms:

dovecote, pigeon loft
A pigeonhole in such a dovecote.
A building, a vault or a similar place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns containing cremated remains.
- We have seen how it is originally language which works on the construction of concepts, a labor taken over in later ages by science. Just as the bee simultaneously constructs cells and fills them with honey, so science works unceasingly on this great columbarium of concepts, the graveyard of...1873, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, anonymous translator, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, translation of original in German, part 2
- The columbarium (vaults lined with recesses for cinerary urns) in the form of a grotto (a cave-like structure) is the centerpiece of the Elks plot.2004, Douglas Keister, Stories in Stone, Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 13
Synonyms:

cinerarium
A niche in such a building for housing urns.

columbarium meaning in Persian

columbarium in Persian

a building for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves: کبوترخانه kabutarxâne

Examples of columbarium in a sentence

Fish ponds were stocked with netted fish during the summer as a source of protein and dove cotes, or as the Romans called them, 'columbariums', were another.2008, Stanley Graham, Barnoldswich, page 34:
Just as the bee simultaneously constructs cells and fills them with honey, so science works unceasingly on this great columbarium of concepts, the graveyard of perceptions.1873, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, anonymous translator, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, translation of original in German, part 2:

Synonyms of columbarium

Forms of columbarium

plural	columbariums
plural	columbaria

Origin of columbarium

Borrowed from Latin columbārium, from columba (“pigeon”) + -ārium (“place for”).

Words that rhyme with columbarium

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about columbarium

What does columbarium mean?: Columbarium means a columbary, especially a large and architecturally impressive one for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves, such as those in ancien régime France.
What is columbarium in Persian?: Columbarium in Persian is کبوترخانه (kabutarxâne). See Columbarium meaning in Persian.
How do you use columbarium in a sentence?: Fish ponds were stocked with netted fish during the summer as a source of protein and dove cotes, or as the Romans called them, 'columbariums', were another.
What part of speech is columbarium?: Columbarium is a noun.
How do you pronounce columbarium?: Columbarium is pronounced /ˌkɒləmˈbɛəɹi.əm/ (UK).
What is the plural of columbarium?: The plural of columbarium is columbariums.

Words near columbarium in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: columbarium (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-TurtleMedicine-columbarium.wav.

Cite this entry: “columbarium.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/columbarium. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.