tumulus
UK/ˈtjuːmjələs//ˈtuːmjələs/
tumulus noun: a mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.
Noun
tumulus (plural tumuli)
- A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.
- They planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country, and formed themselves into column and hollow square.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC
- Near Smeinogorsk an octagonal tumulus has been found containing the corpse of a horse near a rectangular one with a human corpse, both within stone circles.1898, Friedrich Ratzel, The History of Mankind, volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., page 325
- Synonyms:
- burial mound § Synonyms
Synonyms of tumulus
- burial mound § Synonyms
Forms of tumulus
| plural | tumuli |
|---|
Origin of tumulus
From Latin tumulus (“mound, hill”), from tumeō (“to swell”). Doublet of tombolo.
Words formed from tumulus
- tumulous
- Tumulus culture
Questions about tumulus
- What does tumulus mean?
- Tumulus means a mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.
- What part of speech is tumulus?
- Tumulus is a noun.
- How do you pronounce tumulus?
- Tumulus is pronounced /ˈtjuːmjələs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tumulus?
- The plural of tumulus is tumuli.
Words near tumulus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tumulus (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)-Flame, not lame-tumulus.wav.
Cite this entry: “tumulus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tumulus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.