charnel houses

Meanings

1. 1nounpluralformal

   Buildings or vaults where human bones and bodies were kept, especially when a churchyard had no more room.

   Grammar: Plural of charnel house; the singular is more common in general descriptions.

   Patterns

   • charnel houses full of something

   Medieval churches often had charnel houses beside the graveyard.

   Archaeologists uncovered two charnel houses beneath the old abbey.

   Visitors were shocked by the piles of skulls in the charnel houses.

2. 2nounpluralfigurativeliterary

   Places or scenes of great slaughter or death, described in strong, grim language.

   Grammar: Used figuratively with a noun like battlefield or hospital.

   Patterns

   • turn something into charnel houses

   The writer described the trenches as charnel houses of mud.

   War had turned the town's hospitals into charnel houses.

   Reporters called the abandoned camps charnel houses of disease.

Common combinations

medieval charnel houses

Medieval charnel houses stored bones to free up graves.

charnel houses of war

The poem speaks of the charnel houses of war.

visit the charnel houses

Tourists can visit the charnel houses in the crypt.

old charnel houses

The old charnel houses are now museums.

turn into charnel houses

Fields were turned into charnel houses.

Synonyms and how they differ

ossuaries

Ossuaries are the formal, neutral term for bone stores, while charnel houses sound darker and more dramatic.

mausoleums

Mausoleums are grand tombs for individual bodies and are not full of mixed remains.

catacombs

Catacombs are underground burial passages, usually Roman, and are not a single building for bones.

Word family

charnel house noun

The singular form.

charnel adjective

Of or like a place for dead bodies.

Commonly confused: charnel houses or crematorium?

Practice

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