Columbarium

//ˌkɒləmˈbɛəɹi.əm// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A large, sometimes architecturally impressive building for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves, particularly those of ancien regime France. historical

    "Their sides present the well-known appearance of the Roman columbaria (dove-cotes), but with the important difference, that they are adapted to contain coffins instead of urns, the holes being about 2 feet square and 6 feet deep."

  2. 2
    a sepulchral vault or other structure having recesses in the walls to receive cinerary urns wordnet
  3. 3
    A pigeonhole in such a dovecote.
  4. 4
    a niche for a funeral urn containing the ashes of the cremated dead wordnet
  5. 5
    A building, a vault or a similar place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns containing cremated remains.

    "We have seen how it is originally language which works on the construction of concepts, a labor taken over in later ages by science. Just as the bee simultaneously constructs cells and fills them with honey, so science works unceasingly on this great columbarium of concepts, the graveyard of perceptions."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    a birdhouse for pigeons wordnet
  2. 7
    A niche in such a building for housing urns.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin columbārium, from columba (“pigeon”) + -ārium (“place for”).

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