Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A cemetery, especially a large and elaborate one belonging to an ancient city.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A cemetery; specifically, one of the cemeteries of ancient peoples. Such burying-grounds, in the neighborhood of some sites of ancient cities, are very extensive and abound in valuable remains. From the ancient cemeteries a large part of modern archæological knowledge has been derived, owing to the practice among the peoples of antiquity of depositing in their tombs objects of art and of daily use, and very generally of ornamenting them with characteristic monuments of architecture, sculpture, painting, or epigraphy. The name is sometimes given to modern cemeteries in or near towns.
Wiktionary
- n. A large cemetery, especially one of elaborate construction in an ancient city.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A city of the dead; a name given by the ancients to their cemeteries, and sometimes applied to modern burial places; a graveyard.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tract of land used for burials
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek νεκρόπολις (nekropolis, "city of the dead"), from νεκρός (nekros, "dead") + πόλις (polis, "city"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek nekropolis : nekro-, necro- + polis, city; see pelə-3 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Egyptian authorities say archeologists have found an ancient tomb that suggests another necropolis is yet to be discovered near the Great Pyramids of Giza.”
Voice of America: Archeologists in Egypt Uncover Ancient Tomb
“One female mummy was found wearing a gilded mask, a rare treasure at the site known as the necropolis of Deir el-Banat.”
“Among those buried in the necropolis was a set designer for Pompey's Theater, notorious for being near the spot where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death.”
“So Dominique and Hannelore excavated a trench perpendicular to the eastern part of the NW necropolis, which is interpreted as a degraded active normal fault plane.”
Interactive Dig Sagalassos 2003 - Seismological Studies Report 1
“One of the most interesting objects in Sikyatki food basins from the necropolis was a comparatively well preserved rattle of a rattlesnake.”
“To-day they are the only landmarks of this necropolis, which is nearly six miles in length, and was formerly covered by temples of a magnificence and a vastness unimaginable to the minds of our day.”
“Countless pyramids, obelisks and urns, rising far and wide above the cedars and cypresses, showed the extent of the splendid necropolis, which is inhabited by pale, shrouded emigrants from its living sister below.”
“Marble sarcophagus 2nd century A.D. South of the necropolis is the partially reconstructed Roman hippodrome excavated in 1967.”
“necropolis" city of the dead, but that since Christ we call it a”
Our Man In Heaven: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
“Some 25 burials in the medieval necropolis were found in the excavated area.”
The Huffington Post: Magda Abu-Fadil: Beirut Cathedral Museum Reveals Layers of Christian History
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘necropolis’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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art & art historical
chiaroscuro, architrave, column, capital, corinthian, dorice, entablature, frieze, ionic, sketch, abecedarian, abstraction and 124 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1856 more...
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Words I like
A list contrived for the sole purpose of storing words I like to include in my writing; words that inspire or carry power for me.
contrite, meadow, sward, ossary, calumny, moribund, necropolis, chthonic, murmur, erstwhile, chime, beryl and 63 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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slackagogo's Words
agelast, aggiornamento, zaftig, wowserism, vox barbara, verbigeration, tchotchke, tautology, sycophant, spoonerism, solipsism, sobriquet and 288 more...
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No Dearth of Deadly Designations
catafalque, cenotaph, necropolis, sepulcher, sarcophagus, mausoleum, reliquary, ossuary, necrosis, cadaver, cadaverous, pyre and 103 more...
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Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
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Learned
ambergris, andiron, aphelion, austral, bellicose, boreal, bravura, chaff, chicanery, creditable, credulous, decamp and 223 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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ashton's Words
genocide, boingy, umwelt, zeitgeist, fungible, vorpal, spawn, discordian, fnord, surreptitious, xyzzy, corruption and 122 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for necropolis.
ofravens I found your name, I found your bones and all
Enlisted in a cramped necropolis
from "Electra on Azalea Path," Sylvia Plath Apr 8, 2008
reesetee Well, they're usually quiet. Not often crowded. Not much to do, but if you're looking for a nice restful place....
Wait--you have to be dead? Jan 25, 2008
uselessness Hey everybody! Who wants to live in a cemetery? Jan 24, 2008