charnel

POS

Adjective, Noun

HYPHEN

char=nel

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WORDNET DICTIONARY

Noun charnel has 1 sense

charnel(n = noun.artifact) charnel house - a vault or building where corpses or bones are deposited;

is a kind of burial vault, vault

Adjective charnel has 1 sense

charnel(s = adj.all) ghastly, sepulchral - gruesomely indicative of death or the dead; "a charnel smell came from the chest filled with dead men's bones"; "ghastly shrieks"; "the sepulchral darkness of the catacombs"

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CIDE DICTIONARY

charnel, a. [F. charnel carnal, fleshly, fr. L. carnalis. See Carnal.].

Containing the bodies of the dead. Milton. [1913 Webster]

Charnel house, a tomb, vault, cemetery, or other place where the bones of the dead are deposited; originally, a place for the bones thrown up when digging new graves in old burial grounds.

charnel, n.

A charnel house; a grave; a cemetery. [1913 Webster]

"In their proud charnel of Thermopylæ." [1913 Webster]