Catafalque
//ˈkatəfalk// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A platform used to display or convey a coffin during a funeral, often ornate.
"Until noon, the hour of the funeral, crowds continued to file by the plain pine coffin on its plain flower-covered catafalque."
- 2 a decorated bier on which a coffin rests in state during a funeral wordnet
Example
More examples"Until noon, the hour of the funeral, crowds continued to file by the plain pine coffin on its plain flower-covered catafalque."
Etymology
Borrowed from French catafalque, from Italian catafalco, from Vulgar Latin *catafalicum, from Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “down”) + Latin fala (“scaffolding, wooden siege tower”), which is from Etruscan. Also influenced scaffold.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.