Meaning & use
tumulus
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Meaning
nouncountablespecialist
A large mound of earth or stones that people in ancient times raised over a grave.
Grammar: Plural is tumuli. Used mainly in archaeology and history writing.
Patterns
- a tumulus of earth
Archaeologists dug into the tumulus and found bones and pottery.
A grassy tumulus rises above the field near the village.
The Bronze Age tumulus was once covered with white stones.
Word forms
| plural | tumuli |
|---|
Common combinations
- a Bronze Age tumulus
- A Bronze Age tumulus stands on the ridge above the farm.
- excavate a tumulus
- The team plans to excavate the tumulus next summer.
- a burial tumulus
- The burial tumulus contained several cremated remains.
- an ancient tumulus
- An ancient tumulus overlooks the valley.
- a grassy tumulus
- Sheep graze on the grassy tumulus.
Synonyms and how they differ
- barrow
- Barrow is the common British word for a burial mound and is used in place names, while tumulus is the more formal term.
- burial mound
- Burial mound is the plain everyday phrase and covers the same thing in simpler words.
- cairn
- A cairn is a heap of stones, which may mark a grave or a path, whereas a tumulus is usually mostly earth.
- kurgan
- Kurgan is the Russian-derived term for such mounds on the Eurasian steppe, so it is regional, not general.
Word family
- tumuli noun
- the plural of tumulus
- tumular adjective
- relating to a mound or tumulus (rare)
Commonly confused: tumulus or tumult?
tumulus vs tumult
A tumult is a loud, confused disturbance, whereas a tumulus is an ancient burial mound.
Practice
The archaeologists discovered that the grassy hill was actually an ancient ____ covering several graves.
Choose one answer.
A tumulus is a burial mound. A tunnel, tournament or turbine is not a mound covering graves.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tumulus”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.