Meaning & use
interment service
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Meaning
nouncountableformal
A short ceremony held when a coffin or urn is placed in the ground or in a tomb.
Grammar: Usually follows a funeral: the interment service took place at the cemetery.
Patterns
- an interment service for someone
- attend an interment service
Family members gathered at the cemetery for the interment service.
The interment service followed the church funeral.
A private interment service was held for the ashes.
Word forms
| plural | interment services |
|---|
Common combinations
- private interment service
- A private interment service was held for close relatives.
- hold an interment service
- They will hold an interment service on Saturday.
- attend an interment service
- Dozens of friends attended the interment service.
- graveside interment service
- The graveside interment service was brief.
- interment service at the cemetery
- The interment service at the cemetery began at noon.
Synonyms and how they differ
- burial service
- Burial service is the plainer, everyday way to say the same thing.
- graveside service
- Graveside service emphasizes that the ceremony happens at the grave.
- committal
- Committal is the specific part of a funeral when the body is committed to the ground or cremated.
- funeral
- Funeral is the wider event of remembering the person, and may happen elsewhere.
Word family
Commonly confused: interment service or internment?
interment service vs internment
Internment means confining people, often in wartime, whereas interment means burying the dead.
Practice
Which word completes the sentence? 'The family held a brief ___ service at the cemetery.'
Choose one answer.
Interment means burial, which matches a cemetery service. Internment means confinement, the tempting but wrong choice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “interment service”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.