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  1. charnel love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A repository for the bones or bodies of the dead; a charnel house.
  2. adj. Resembling, suggesting, or suitable for receiving the dead.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A common repository for dead bodies; a place for the indiscriminate or close deposit of the remains, and especially of the bones, of the dead; a charnel-house.
  2. Containing or designed to contain flesh or dead bodies.
  3. n. A hinge, as of a door, window, chest, etc.
  4. n. The pivot or hinge on which the beaver or vizor of a helmet moved.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A chapel attached to a mortuary.
  2. n. A repository for dead bodies.
  3. adj. Of or relating to a charnel, deathlike, sepulchral.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Containing the bodies of the dead.
  2. n. A charnel house; a grave; a cemetery.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a vault or building where corpses or bones are deposited
  2. adj. gruesomely indicative of death or the dead

Etymologies

  1. From Middle French charnel < Late Latin carnāle ("graveyard") < Latin carnālis, or possibly an alteration of Anglo-Norman charner < Medieval Latin carnārium ("charnel"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin carnāle, from neuter of Latin carnālis, of the flesh, from carō, carn-, flesh; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (2)

Words with the same meaning

  1. grave
  1. cemetery

equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘charnel’

  1. offensive

hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. vault
  1. burial vault

same context (19)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. sickly-sweet
  2. waxlike
  3. sulfurous
  1. long-closed
  2. saints'
  3. miry
  1. stomach-turning
  2. gamy
  3. soakage
  1. eye-watering
  2. rock-cut
  3. dissecting-room
  1. gassy
  2. deep-blue
  3. encamping
  1. corpse-like
  2. lemony
  3. safety-deposit
  1. sweetish

reverse dictionary (7)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. carnary
  1. charnel
  1. charnel house
  1. ossuarium
  1. ossuary
  1. uncharnel
  1. shrine

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Lists

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Comments

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  • ruzuzu "4. The pivot or hinge on which the beaver or vizor of a helmet moved."
    --Century Dictionary
    Apr 6, 2011

  • reesetee It's related to carnal (charnel, that is). Char is pretty interesting, from what I can find. Each meaning of the word has a different derivation. "Char" meaning "to burn" comes, not surprisingly, from charcoal. "Char" the fish and "char" as in charwoman comes from Old English ceorra, "turner," derived from ceorran "to turn." And "char" as in the British informal word for tea (really? I've never heard this before) is from the Hindi c�?, which means, of course, "tea."

    I guess I should have put all of this on the char page. :-) Nov 11, 2007

  • chained_bear Really? What about the root of char then? Are they related? Signed, Too Lazy to Go Look. Nov 11, 2007

  • reesetee Really? Hmm. I always thought this word sounded creepy. And its root means "flesh." Nov 11, 2007

  • chained_bear This word is way too pretty for what it means. Hey reesetee--maybe it should be on your "Worse Than It Sounds" list? Nov 11, 2007

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‘charnel’ has been looked up 2624 times, loved by 4 people, added to 28 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.