sarcophagus
Syllables: sar·co·phag·us/sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/US/sɑɹˈkɑfəɡəs/
sarcophagus noun: a stonen coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
Noun
sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses or (rare) sarcophagusses)
- A stonen coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
- [T]his (venter impiorum inſaturabilis [the insatiable belly of the wicked]) in foure & tvventie houres conſumes many carkaſſes of Fiſhes and Fovvles, and generally tvvice a day all the fleſh therein interred; ſo true a Sarcophagus is the belly: […]1619, Samuel Purchas, “Mans Retrograde to a Belly, Spider, Idle, Idoll-belly: The Titles, Temples, Sacrifices, Incense, Liturgies, Students, Lawes, Sacraments, Deuotions of God-belly”, in Purchas His...
- One meets vvith many other Figures of Meleager in the ancient Baſſo Relievo's, and on the Sides of the Sarcophagi, or Funeral Monuments.1705, J[oseph] Addison, “Rome”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, pages 310–311
- Synonyms:
- sarcophage
- The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
- 'They move stuff out of the sarcophagus?' / 'I know, crazy people, they're killing themselves from radiation.' […] '[S]o the materials, plutonium, catalysis, are assembled at a site near the sarcophagus?' […] '[W]hat we know is this, they collect the plutonium, etc, from Chernobyl, what they don't...2012, Tom Bryson, chapter 35, in Sarcophagus, S.l.: TJB Books, →ISBN, page 231
- A type of wine cooler (“a piece of equipment used to keep wine chilled”) shaped like a sarcophagus (sense 1).
- There is an open sarcophagus-shaped wine-cooler beneath, standing on a plinth. The inside of the wine-cooler may either be lined with lead, or it may contain a block-tin case, with handles, to lift out. Ice is frequently put into these wine-coolers, in order to surround the decanters or bottles set...1833, J[ohn] C[laudius] Loudon, “Of the Furniture of Villas”, in An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture; […], London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman...
- A George VI mahogany sarcophagus wine cooler, with nulled mouldings and brass ring handles, the turned stem on leaf carved and moulded legs and brass castors.2015, Judith Miller, “Furniture”, in Miller’s Antiques Handbook & Price Guide 2016–2017, London: Miller’s, Mitchell Beazley, →ISBN, page 251
- A kind of limestone used by the Ancient Greeks for coffins, so called because it was thought to consume the flesh of corpses.
- Near unto Aſſos, a citie in Troas, there is found in the quarries a certaine ſtone called Sarcophagus, vvhich runneth in a direct veine, and is apt to be cloven and ſo cut out of the rocke by flakes: The reaſon of the name is this, becauſe that vvithin the ſpace of fortie daies it is knovvne for...1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXVI.] Of Certaine Stones which will Quickly Consume the Bodies that be Laid therein. Of Others Againe that Preserve Them a Long Time....
- His Entrails are like the Sarcophagus, that devours dead Bodies in a ſmall Space, […]a. 1681 (date written), Samuel Butler, “A Glutton”, in R[obert] Thyer, editor, The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson...
Verb
sarcophagus (third-person singular simple present sarcophaguses, present participle sarcophagusing, simple past and past participle sarcophagused)
- To enclose (a corpse, etc.) in a sarcophagus (noun sense 1).
- All waiting: the new-coffined dead, / The handful of mere dust that lies / Sarcophagused in stone and lead / Under the weight of centuries: / Knight, cardinal, bishop, abbess mild, / With last week's buried year-old child.1862 April, [Dinah Maria Mulock], “Waiting”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume V, number 30, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 464
- Was it the Mummy of King Cheops—still sarcophagused in the labyrinthine recesses of the star-y-pointing Pyramid, to mock generations of Egyptologists, past, present, and to come—that had all at once found a tongue within his desiccated jaws?1876 January 8, “Preface”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume 69, London: […] Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages iii–iv
- Synonyms:
- sarcophagise, sarcophagize
sarcophagus meaning in Bengali, Kannada, Tagalog and Arabic
sarcophagus in Bengali
- প্রাচীন পাথরের শবপাত্র
sarcophagus in Kannada
- ಕಲ್ಲಿನ ಹೆಣದರೆ
sarcophagus in Tagalog
- stone coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture
- sarkopago
sarcophagus in Arabic
- stone coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture
- نَاوُوس nāwūs
More languagesFewer languages
- sarcophagus in Persian
- تابوتدان tâbut-dân
- sarcophagus in Thai
- โลงหิน loong-hǐn
- sarcophagus in Vietnamese
- quách
Examples of sarcophagus in a sentence
- On the lids of those Tombs; square sarcophaguses, in that silent dim-burning Hall, each with its Soul in torment; the lids open there; they are to be shut at the Day of Judgment, through Eternity.1840 May 12, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture III. The Hero as Poet. Dante; Shakespeare.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History...
- The swinging lantern reveals a burial chamber; below him lies a sarcophagus, and it appears to be undisturbed. […] He examines the sarcophagus by the light of the lantern.2004, Robin [Jeremy] Brooks, “Third Fragment: Discovery”, in The Portland Vase: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Mysterious Roman Treasure...
- There is an open sarcophagus-shaped wine-cooler beneath, standing on a plinth.1833, J[ohn] C[laudius] Loudon, “Of the Furniture of Villas”, in An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture...
- Even the sight of a very great king indeed, sarcophagused under electric light in a hall full of most fortifying pictures, does not hold him [a visitor to the Valley of the Kings, Egypt] too long.1913 (date written), Rudyard Kipling, “[Egypt of the Magicians.] Dead Kings.”, in Letters of Travel (1892–1913), London: Macmillan and Co....
Synonyms of sarcophagus
- sarcophagise
- sarcophagize
- sarcophage
Forms of sarcophagus
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sarcophagi |
| plural | sarcophaguses |
| plural (rare) | sarcophagusses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sarcophaguses |
| present participle | sarcophagusing |
| past participle | sarcophagused |
| past | sarcophagused |
Origin of sarcophagus
The noun is borrowed from Latin sarcophagus (“grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from Ancient Greek σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (sărkophắgos, “sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”) (so named from λῐ́θος σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (lĭ́thos sărkophắgos, literally “flesh-eating stone”) a type of limestone found at Assos in Troas (now Behramkale, Turkey) thought to consume the flesh of corpses, and thus used to make coffins), from σαρκός (sarkós) (the genitive form of σάρξ (sárx, “flesh; body”), from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -φάγος (-phágos, suffix meaning ‘eater (of); eating’) (from ἔφαγον (éphagon, “to devour, eat”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂g- (“to allot, distribute; to divide”)). The plural form sarcophagi is borrowed from Latin sarcophagī. The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from sarcophagus
Questions about sarcophagus
- What does sarcophagus mean?
- Sarcophagus means a stonen coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
- What is sarcophagus in Bengali?
- Sarcophagus in Bengali is প্রাচীন পাথরের শবপাত্র. See Sarcophagus meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use sarcophagus in a sentence?
- On the lids of those Tombs; square sarcophaguses, in that silent dim-burning Hall, each with its Soul in torment; the lids open there; they are to be shut at the Day of Judgment, through Eternity.
- What part of speech is sarcophagus?
- Sarcophagus can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sarcophagus?
- Sarcophagus is pronounced /sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sarcophagus?
- The plural of sarcophagus is sarcophagi.
Words near sarcophagus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sarcophagus (page history and authors); sarcophagus (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sarcophagus (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-sarcophagus.wav.
Cite this entry: “sarcophagus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sarcophagus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.