Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Catacomb |
CatacombNoun1. An underground tunnel with recesses where bodies were buried (as in ancient Rome). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "catacomb" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1839. (references) |
Etymology: Catacomb \Cat"a*comb\, noun. [Italian catacomba, from the Latin expression catacumba perhaps from Greek kata` downward, down ky`mbh cavity.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Literature | Catacomb A subterranean place for the burial of the dead. The Persians have a city they call Comb or Coom, full of mausoleums and the sepulchres of the Persian saints. (Greek, kata-kumbe, a hollow place underground.) (See Koom .) "The most awful idea connected with the catacombs is their interminable extent, and the possibility of going astray in the labyrinth of darkness." - Hawthorne: Marble Faun, iii. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Interment | Grave, pit, sepulcher, tomb, vault, crypt, catacomb, mausoleum, Golgotha, house of death, narrow house; cemetery, necropolis; burial place, burial ground; grave yard, church yard; God's acre; tope, cromlech, barrow, tumulus, cairn; ossuary; bone house, charnel house, dead house; morgue; lich gate; burning ghat; crematorium, crematory; dokhma, mastaba, potter's field, stupa, Tower of Silence. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | The New Catacomb (1967) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | They call and they answer from one catacomb to another. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Catacomb" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 71.43% of the time. "Catacomb" is used about 7 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 71.43% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Noun (proper) | 28.57% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 7 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
catacomb daoc | 375 | catacomb nile | 4 |
catacomb | 244 | catacomb in paris | 4 |
catacomb shadowbane | 148 | catacomb restaurant | 4 |
paris catacomb | 55 | catacomb 3d | 3 |
catacomb sb | 39 | 1999 catacomb space | 3 |
camelot catacomb | 36 | catacomb italy | 3 |
age camelot catacomb dark | 27 | christian catacomb | 3 |
catacomb tfc | 17 | catacomb nicos | 2 |
catacomb of rome | 17 | catacomb london | 2 |
catacomb roman | 14 | catacomb map | 2 |
catacomb doac | 8 | catacomb swg | 2 |
age catacomb dark | 7 | antonio catacomb san | 2 |
catacomb picture | 7 | apocalypse catacomb | 2 |
catacomb abyss | 6 | catacomb sicily | 2 |
catacomb forum | 5 | builder catacomb | 2 |
catacomb france | 5 | catacomb exhibition mussorgsky | 2 |
catacomb palermo | 5 | catacomb exit paris | 2 |
catacomb french | 5 | catacomb galaxy star war | 2 |
catacomb news | 2 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "catacomb"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | katakomb. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مقبرة تحت الأرض, مدفنة تحت الأرض, سرداب الموتى. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | катакомба, подземна гробница (vault). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | katakomby (catacombs). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | catacombes, catacombe. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | katakombe. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κατακόμβη. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | קטקומב". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | katakomba. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | catacomba. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | カス"海 (Casanova, casein, Caspian Sea, casserole, cassette, cassette book, cassette deck, cassette tape, catamaran, catapult, catastrophe, caterpillar, cathedral, Catholic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | カタコンブ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | atacombcay catacumbas (catacombs). (various references) catacombã. (various references) катакомба, подземелье. (various references) podzemna grobnica, katakomba. (various references) catacumba. (various references) katakomb. (various references) หลุมฝังศพใต้"ินที่มีหลายๆ ห้อง. (various references) yer altı mezarlığı, katakomp. (various references) катакомби, галерея з нішами, підземне кладовище, підземна печера, підземелля (subterranean, subterrene). (various references) hầm mộ hầm rượu, hầm để quan t i. (various references) beddgell (vault). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | cata tumbas. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "catacomb": catacombs. (additional references) | |
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"Catacomb" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: acctcom, Canticum, Cartaceum, catacombe, cathcom, Cattenom. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "catacomb" (pronounced ka"tukō'm) |
| 3 | -k ō' m | honeycomb. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-b-c-c-m-o-t" | |
-2 letters: combat, macaco, tambac, tombac. | |
-3 letters: aboma, bacca, cacao, coact. | |
-4 letters: acta, ambo, atma, atom, boat, bota, caca, coat, coca, coma, comb, moat, taco, tomb. | |
-5 letters: aba, abo, act, ama, baa, bam, bat, boa, bot, cab, cam, cat, cob, cot, mac, mat, moa, mob, moc, mot, oat, oca, tab, tam, tao, tom. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-b-c-c-m-o-t" | |
+1 letter: catacombs. | |
+3 letters: saltimbocca. | |
+4 letters: backcourtman, mycobacteria, saltimboccas. | |
+5 letters: campylobacter, mycobacterial. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)43 61 74 61 63 6F 6D 62 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.-. .- - .- -.-. --- -- -... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000011 01100001 01110100 01100001 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)C a t a c o m b |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0043 0061 0074 0061 0063 006F 006D 0062 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3767866769817968 |
| 1. Definition 2. Usage: Modern 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Quotations: Fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
