Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An underground vault or chamber, especially one beneath a church that is used as a burial place.
- n. Anatomy A small pit, recess, or glandular cavity in the body.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A hidden or secret recess; a subterranean cell or cave, especially one constructed or used for the interment of bodies, as in the catacombs.
- n. A part of an ecclesiastical building, as a cathedral, church, etc., below the chief floor, commonly set apart for monumental purposes, and sometimes used as a chapel or a shrine.
- n. In anatomy, a follicle; a small simple tubular or saccular secretory pit; a small glandular cavity: as, a mucous crypt (a follicular secretory pit in mucous membrane). See follicle. Also crypta.
Wiktionary
- n. An underground vault, especially one beneath a church that is used as a burial place.
- n. A small pit or cavity in the body
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory.
- n. A simple gland, glandular cavity, or tube; a follicle.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a cellar or vault or underground burial chamber (especially beneath a church)
Etymologies
- Latin crypta, from Greek kruptē, from feminine of kruptos, hidden, from kruptein, to hide.
Examples
“The term crypt is sometimes used to signify the lower story of a two-storied building, e.g. the lower chapel of the”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery
“We actually talked to a man who's been inside that mausoleum, and he said there are what he calls crypt keepers inside who keep the people who don't own property, as he put it, inside, or shouldn't be in there, they keep them out.”
“Perhaps Walt Disney and Madame Tussaud were inspired by places like this, but the Capuchin crypt will not remind you of their worlds, for in spite of all the talk about the great lengths the monks have gone to in order to create lifelike effects, it feels like somewhere that fell into disuse long ago.”
“In the Paroquia don't forget to ask to visit the tomb of the first? or third? president of México whose crypt is in the basement.”
“This building used to be a church, built by Souffelot, and the crypt is where many famous French people are buried.”
skipperjbk8: Like a lemon to the Lime and a Bumble to the Bee
“The dark and mysterious crypt is there, as is the iron grating, which is pointed to as indicating the exact position of the tomb.”
“Caravaggio's bones found in Italian crypt after 400 years”
“There’s a haunted house (ah, but by what?) called the Angel of Mist, and the only horror greater than the thing rotting in its bricked-up crypt is (but of course, senor) the horror of doomed love.”
“They head out to the crypt, which is in the backyard.”
The Huffington Post: James Frey: Ghosts, Goths, and Galas at the Fabulous Beekman Boys Farm
“Found in a crypt was the mummy of the ruler, who was either 35 - or 3500-years-old, depending on how you're counting.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘crypt’.
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Words that, if you stare at them long enough, they cease to look like real words.
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agustinolvera Eclispe by Stephenie Meyer Page 78
-"I'll stop by your crypt after school." Nov 1, 2010