Word.ws English Dictionary

tophet

Syllables: To·phetUK/ˈtəʊfɪt/US/ˈtoʊfɪt/

tophet noun: a Carthaginian monument associated with a cemetery for ritually sacrificed children.

Noun

tophet (plural tophets)

  1. A Carthaginian monument associated with a cemetery for ritually sacrificed children.
    • They are an important factor indicating a corpus of beliefs common to the important central colonies (Carthage, Sousse, Motya, Sulcis, Nora, Tharros), where tophets and accompanying grave stelae have been found.1991, John Boardman, The Cambridge Ancient History (part 1, page 490)

Proper noun capitalized: Tophet

Tophet

  1. A location near Jerusalem in the valley of Gehenna where children were burned alive as sacrifice.
    • And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 7:31
  2. Hell, Gehenna.
    • In this Tophet, they commonly immolated their little children, and sometimes men of more yeers than discretion […]1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section II
    • But already is the day of their avengement begun; the hero is at length arisen who shall send all such as bear enmity to the true Church, or trust in works of their own, to Tophet!1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Forms of tophet

pluraltophets

Origin of tophet

From Tophet.

Borrowed from Biblical Hebrew תֹּפֶת (tôp̄eṯ).

Words formed from tophet

Questions about tophet

What does tophet mean?
Tophet means a Carthaginian monument associated with a cemetery for ritually sacrificed children.
What part of speech is tophet?
Tophet can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tophet?
Tophet is pronounced /ˈtəʊfɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of tophet?
The plural of tophet is tophets.

Words near tophet in the dictionary

  1. tophe
  2. topheavily
  3. topheaviness
  4. topheavy
  5. Topher
  6. tophet
  7. Tophetic
  8. tophets
  9. tophi
  10. tophin
  11. tophs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tophet (page history and authors); Tophet (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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Cite this entry: “tophet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tophet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.