charnel

noun

char·​nel ˈchär-nᵊl 

: a building or chamber in which bodies or bones are deposited

called also charnel house

charnel adjective

Examples of charnel in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

His third-floor office, in a dingy concrete building across a roaring four-lane road from the Ikeja market, is a charnel house of dead mobile phones. —Vince Beiser, WIRED, 30 Nov. 2024

Out of this charnel house where an American flag hung at one end, technicians hoped to identify 388 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma. —Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2024

Kfar Aza, a kibbutz close to the separation barrier with Gaza, was burned nearly to the ground: a charnel house. —Joshua Leifer, The New York Review of Books, 28 Oct. 2023

Kfar Aza, a kibbutz close to the separation barrier with Gaza, has been burned to the ground, a charnel house of mangled corpses. —Joshua Leifer, The New York Review of Books, 12 Oct. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French carnel, charnel, probably alteration of charner, from Medieval Latin carnarium, from Latin carn-, caro flesh — more at carnal

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

charnel

noun

char·​nel ˈchärn-ᵊl 

: a building or chamber in which dead bodies or bones are deposited

charnel adjective