Tophet
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 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."
- 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."
- 2 Hell, Gehenna.
"In this Tophet, they commonly immolated their little children, and sometimes men of more yeers than discretion […]"
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
Borrowed from Biblical Hebrew תוֹפֶת (tôp̄eṯ).
From Tophet.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.