burials

noun

plural of burial
1
as in funerals
the act or ceremony of putting a dead body in its final resting place the children wanted to give the dead bird a proper burial in the backyard

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in tombs
a final resting place for a dead person archaeologically significant artifacts, such as stone tools, have been discovered in Neanderthal burials

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of burials Pomeroy and her colleagues excavated the remains from inside Shanidar Cave, an archaeological site in Iraqi Kurdistan famous for containing evidence of ritualistic Neanderthal burials. — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 15 Oct. 2026 Until a 1917 church law was revised in 1983, those who died by suicide were denied Catholic burials on consecrated grounds. — Arkansas Online, 10 Oct. 2026 Catholic burial for people who died by suicide Until a 1917 church law was revised in 1983, those who died by suicide were denied Catholic burials on consecrated grounds. — Luis Andres Henao, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2026 Campbell cautioned that this doesn’t mean that the hundreds of other burials in these areas were also victims of human sacrifice. — Jack Guy, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2026 This particular set of remains—46 crania stored at Cambridge University—came from the Umm el-Qaab cemetery, which contains subsidiary burials presumed to be retainers of deceased First Dynasty rulers. — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 5 Oct. 2026 The remains from 77 previously unknown burials were being stored in a secure facility, UC Davis Health officials said. — Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 30 Sep. 2026 Owing to constant construction noise, daily burials at the cemetery would no longer take place in silence. — Antonia Hitchens, New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2026 Preliminary explorations indicate these burials were looted in antiquity; passages linking them are thought to have been made by ancient robbers moving between the tombs. — Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 31 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for burials
  1. funerals
  2. tombs
  3. graves
  4. cemeteries
Noun
  • Since then, the 65-year-old has only made public appearances at family events, including his parents' funerals and, most recently, the funeral of Britain's Duchess of Kent, Katharine, in September.
    — Anthony Robledo, USA Today, 30 Oct. 2025
Definition of funerals
Noun
  • But there is very little archaeological evidence available, given that many of the earliest Egyptian tombs were plundered and/or hastily excavated.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 5 Oct. 2026
  • But our latest research shows how these tombs – built for Etruscans of higher socioeconomic and political status—were designed to offer sophisticated sensory experiences.
    — Jacqueline Ortoleva, Scientific American, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of tombs
Noun
  • This spring, archaeologists in Croatia announced the discovery of ancient Roman graves beneath the coastal city of Zadar — revealing a burial site used for nearly 500 years.
    — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 17 Oct. 2026
  • An Associated Press photograph helped uncover the graves For years, architect Nguyen Xuan Thang pored over photographs from the Vietnam War, searching for clues to the location of the burial site.
    — Aniruddha Ghosal, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of graves
Noun
  • Hollywood Forever is, quite literally, livelier than most cemeteries.
    — Maddie Connors, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
  • This decline is often captured sentimentally in memoirs about the Jewish South of a bygone era or photographs of Jewish cemeteries in various states of disrepair.
    — Ashley Walters, The Conversation, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of cemeteries

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Cite this Entry

“Burials.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/burials. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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