burial

noun

Simple meaning

The act of burying.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

behreeuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɛɹiəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

The act of burying; interment; placing remains into the earth.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The act of burying; interment; placing remains into the earth.

Used this way, burial is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

sepulture , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use burial

“The ancient burial site contained many interesting artifacts.”

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Concealing

burial groundburial customs

Other combinations

burial placeburial siteburial chamberburial moundchristian burialburial service

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

burial chambernounCompound term
A chamber that is used as a grave.
burial garmentnounCompound term
Cloth used to cover a corpse in preparation for burial.
burial groundnounCompound term
A tract of land used for burials.
burial moundnounCompound term
A heap of earth placed over prehistoric tombs.
burial sitenounCompound term
A tract of land used for burials.
burial vaultnounCompound term
A burial chamber (usually underground).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: burying

inhumationintermentsepultureRare

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “burial” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.