Word.ws English Dictionary

Plural of sarcophagus

irregular plural

The plural of sarcophagus is sarcophagi or sarcophaguses.

Forms of sarcophagus

Singularsarcophagus /sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/
Pluralsarcophagi /sɑːˈkɒfəɡaɪ/
sarcophaguses
Countablecountable

Sarcophagi and sarcophaguses in a sentence

  • On closer inspection the coffins seemed to be more like sarcophagi.1980 October, Douglas Adams, chapter 23, in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, London: Pan Books, →ISBN, page 132
  • The relative scarcity of children's sarcophagi (i.e. of child-sized sarcophagi) and specifically child-related iconographies.2018, B. C. Ewald, “Attic Sarcophagi”, in Lucy Gaynor Audley-Miller, Beate Dignas, editors, Wandering Myths, De Gruyter, page 239. From the entry erotes
  • Outside the Guanzhong area, Sui palatial sarcophagi have recently been discovered in the Taiyuan area.2004, Yang Hong, “Jade Suits of the Han Dynasty and Painted Pottery Figurines of the Tang Dynasty: Reflections of Han and Tang…. From the entry Jinyuan
  • The Attic sarcophagi with Erotes are an exception to this.2018, B. C. Ewald, “Attic Sarcophagi”, in Lucy Gaynor Audley-Miller, Beate Dignas, editors, Wandering Myths, De Gruyter, page 239. From the entry erotes
  • Pyramids and sarcophagi (or is that sarcophagusses?1988 August, Pete Gerrard, “Pete Gerrard’s Adventure Trail”, in Dragon User, Dragon Publications, page 24, column 1. From the entry sarcophagusses

Meaning of sarcophagus

  1. noun A stonen coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
  2. noun The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
  3. noun A type of wine cooler (“a piece of equipment used to keep wine chilled”) shaped like a sarcophagus (sense 1).

Full definition of sarcophagus

Nouns ending in -us: plural -i

Questions about the plural of sarcophagus

What is the plural of sarcophagus?
The plural of sarcophagus is sarcophagi or sarcophaguses.
Which is correct, sarcophagi or sarcophaguses?
Both are used. sarcophagi is the more common of the two in English writing.
Is sarcophagus countable?
Sarcophagus is a countable noun.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sarcophagus (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “Plural of sarcophagus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plural/sarcophagus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.