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What does burial mean?

Definitions for burial
ˈbɛr i əlburi·al

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word burial.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. burial, entombment, inhumation, interment, sepulturenoun

    the ritual placing of a corpse in a grave

  2. burying, burialnoun

    concealing something under the ground

Wiktionary

  1. burialnoun

    The act of burying; interment

  2. Etymology: byrgels, from byrgan "to bury" + -els

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Burialnoun

    Etymology: from to bury.

    Nor would we deign him burial of his men. William Shakespeare.

    See my wealthy Andrew dock’d in sand,
    Vailing her high top lower than her ribs,
    To kiss her burial. William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice.

    Your body I sought, and had I found
    Design’d for burial in your native ground. John Dryden, Æneid.

    We have great lakes, both salt and fresh; we use them for burials of some natural bodies: for we find a difference of things buried in earth, and things buried in water. Francis Bacon.

    The office of the church is performed by the parish priest, at the time of his interment, if not prohibited unto persons excommunicated, and laying violent hands on themselves, by a rubrick of the burial service. John Ayliffe, Parergon.

Wikipedia

  1. Burial

    Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects in it, and covering it over. A funeral is a ceremony that accompanies the final disposition. Humans have been burying their dead since shortly after the origin of the species. Burial is often seen as indicating respect for the dead. It has been used to prevent the odor of decay, to give family members closure and prevent them from witnessing the decomposition of their loved ones, and in many cultures it has been seen as a necessary step for the deceased to enter the afterlife or to give back to the cycle of life. Methods of burial may be heavily ritualized and can include natural burial (sometimes called "green burial"); embalming or mummification; and the use of containers for the dead, such as shrouds, coffins, grave liners, and burial vaults, all of which can retard decomposition of the body. Sometimes objects or grave goods are buried with the body, which may be dressed in fancy or ceremonial garb. Depending on the culture, the way the body is positioned may have great significance. The location of the burial may be determined by taking into account concerns surrounding health and sanitation, religious concerns, and cultural practices. Some cultures keep the dead close to provide guidance to the living, while others "banish" them by locating burial grounds at a distance from inhabited areas. Some religions consecrate special ground to bury the dead, and some families build private family cemeteries. Most modern cultures document the location of graves with headstones, which may be inscribed with information and tributes to the deceased. However, some people are buried in anonymous or secret graves for various reasons. Sometimes multiple bodies are buried in a single grave either by choice (as in the case of married couples), due to space concerns, or in the case of mass graves as a way to deal with many bodies at once. Alternatives to burial include cremation (and subsequent interment), burial at sea and cryopreservation. Some human cultures may bury the remains of beloved animals. Humans are not the only species to bury their dead; the practice has been observed in chimpanzees, elephants, and possibly dogs.

ChatGPT

  1. burial

    Burial is the act or a ceremony of placing a dead body or remains into the ground or into the sea, often in a coffin or casket, as part of a ritualistic or traditional procedure followed after a person's death. It may also involve covering the body or remains with soil, stones, or other materials. The location where this action takes place is typically referred to as a grave or burial site.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Burialnoun

    a grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture

  2. Burialnoun

    the act of burying; depositing a dead body in the earth, in a tomb or vault, or in the water, usually with attendant ceremonies; sepulture; interment

Wikidata

  1. Burial

    Burial or interment is the ritual act of placing a dead person or animal, and/or objects into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased or the object in it, and covering it over.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Burial

    ber′i-al, n. the act of laying a dead body in the grave: interment.—ns. Bur′ial-aisle, an aisle in a church used for burials; Bur′ial-ground, Bur′ial-place, a piece of ground set apart for burying.—Burial service, a religious service or form of ritual accompanying a burial; Burial society, an insurance society for providing the expenses of burial. [A.S. byrgels, a tomb. See Bury.]

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Burial

    The act or ceremony of putting a corpse into the ground or a vault, or into the sea; or the inurnment of CREMAINS.

Suggested Resources

  1. burial

    Song lyrics by burial -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by burial on the Lyrics.com website.

British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'burial' in Nouns Frequency: #2934

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce burial?

How to say burial in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of burial in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of burial in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of burial in a Sentence

  1. Christophe Snoeck:

    When it comes to light chemical elements( such as carbon and oxygen), these are heavily altered but for heavier elements such as strontium no alteration was observed, on the contrary, thanks to the high temperatures reached, the structure of the bone is modified and making the bone resistant to post-mortem exchanges with burial soil.

  2. Chief Cameron:

    I would like to say this on a closing note, president Joe Biden, if you are listening, we implore you and we advise you to work with our brothers and sisters in the United States, because there are many unmarked graves in your country. Work with those chiefs and councils and survivors to help give those bodies a proper burial.

  3. Park Cemetery manager Frank Stine:

    With the great granddaughter's help we were able to get all this information, we were able to get his veterans marker and we'll get to lay him next to his first wife, which is traditional, and apparently they had set it up that way because there is a space right next to her for a traditional burial.

  4. Mathew Morris:

    What stands out more is the contrast between the care and attention taken with these burials -- large, neatly dug graves with coffins -- and the crudeness of Richard III's grave, the more we examine it, the clearer it becomes how atypical Richard III's burial really was.

  5. Cora Martinez:

    When I saw my daughter … trying out her dress, I never imagined she was buying the dress for her burial.

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Popularity rank by frequency of use

burial#10000#11146#100000

References

Translations for burial

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"burial." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 21 Jan. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/burial>.

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