Sarcophagus

Definition: Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus

Noun

1. A stone coffin (usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions).

Date "sarcophagus" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Sarcophagus

Domain	Definitions
Satire	SARCOPHAGUS, n. Among the Greeks a coffin which being made of a certain kind of carnivorous stone, had the peculiar property of devouring the body placed in it. The sarcophagus known to modern obsequiographers is commonly a product of the carpenter's art. Source: Devil's Dictionary.
History & Folklore	A coffin made of stone and often ornamented with sculpture. Source: European Union. (references)
Literature	Sarcophagus A stone, according to Pliny, which consumed the flesh, and was therefore chosen by the ancients for coffins. It is called sometimes lapis Assius, because it was found at Assos of Lycia. (Greek, sarx, flesh; phagein, to eat or consume.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Specialty Definition: Sarcophagus

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A sarcophagus is a stone container for a coffin or body. The word comes from Greek sarkophagos (σαρκοφαγος), which means, "eater of flesh." Herodotus believed, erroneously, that sarcophagi (the Latin plural) were carved from a special kind of rock that consumed the flesh of the corpse inside.

Sarcophagi were usually carved, decorated, or built ornately. Some were built to be freestanding above ground, as a part of an elaborate tomb. Others were made for burial, or were placed in crypts. A sarcophagus was usually the external layer of protection for a royal Egyptianian mummy, with several layers of coffins nested within.

See also: coffin, ossuary, tomb, burial, funeral

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sarcophagus."

Top

Synonyms within Context: Sarcophagus

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Interment	Coffin, shell, sarcophagus, urn, pall, bier, hearse, catafalque, cinerary urn.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Top

Crosswords: Sarcophagus

English words defined with "sarcophagus": Assian stone ♦ Sarcophagi, Sarcophaguses. (references)

Etymologies containing "sarcophagus": Sarcophagy. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Sarcophagus" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Manx (sarcophagus).

Top

Commercial Usage: Sarcophagus

Domain	Title
Books	Sarcophagus (reference) Sarcophagus and Other Stories (reference) The So-Called Peleus and Thetis Sarcophagus in the Villa Albani (Iconological Studies in Roman Art , No 1) (reference) Trusty Sarcophagus Company (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Blake's 7, Vol. 18 - Sarcophagus / Ultraworld (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Image Slideshow: Sarcophagus

Top

Usage Frequency: Sarcophagus

"Sarcophagus" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Sarcophagus" is used about 67 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)	100%	67	40,952

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Sarcophagus

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
sarcophagus	47
egyptian sarcophagus	6
bassus junius sarcophagus	4
medieval sarcophagus	4
chernobyl sarcophagus	4
2003 chernobyl sarcophagus	4
dionysus sarcophagus	4
picture sarcophagus	3
bacchus sarcophagus	3
roman sarcophagus	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Modern Translations: Sarcophagus

Language		Translations for "sarcophagus"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		sarkofag. (various references)

Arabic		‏ناووس, ‏لاحم (carnivorous), ‏تابوت حجري. (various references)

Bulgarian		саркофаг. (various references)

Czech		sarkofág. (various references)

Danish		sarkofag. (various references)

Dutch		sarcofaag. (various references)

French		sarcophage. (various references)

German		Sarkophag. (various references)

Greek		σαρκοφάγοσ (carnivorous), σαρκοφάγος (carnivore, carnivorous, flesh fly), λάρνακασ νερού, λάρναξ νερού. (various references)

Hebrew		�'לוסקמ�" (box, chest, coffin, ossuary). (various references)

Hungarian		szarkofág, díszkoporsó. (various references)

Italian		sarcofago. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		石棺 (stone coffin). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		せっか�" (admonition, chastisement, correcting, expostulation, regents and advisers, scolding severely, spanking, stone coffin). (various references)

Manx		toman (low hill), sarcophagus. (various references)

Pig Latin		arcophagussay.(various references)

Portuguese		sarcófago. (various references)

Romanian		sarcofag. (various references)

Russian		саркофаг (sarcophagi). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		sarkofag. (various references)

Spanish		sarcófago. (various references)

Swedish		sarkofag (feretory). (various references)

Thai		โลงหินโบรา�"ที่มีการสลักข้อความหรือรูป� าพ. (various references)

Turkish		lahit (tomb). (various references)

Ukranian		саркофаг, м'ясоїд. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top

Ancestral Language Translations: Sarcophagus

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	sarkophagos. (various references)
Old French	900-1400	cofin. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top

Derivations & Misspellings: Sarcophagus

Derivations
	Words beginning with "sarcophagus": sarcophaguses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Sarcophagus" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: sacophagus, sacrophagus, sarcaphagus, sarchophagus, Sarcobatus, sarcofagus, sarcophalus, sarcophgus, sarcophogus. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top

Rhyming with "Sarcophagus"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "sarcophagus" (pronounced sÄrkÄ"fugus)
6	-Ä" f u g u s	esophagus.
4	-u g u s	analogous, asparagus, homologous.
3	-g u s	Argus, bodegas, bogus, Degas, dingus, fungus, heterozygous, homozygous, humongous, Negus.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Top

Anagrams: Sarcophagus

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-g-h-o-p-r-s-s-u"
	-2 letters: guacharos.
	-3 letters: acarpous, choragus, guacharo, saguaros, sahuaros.
	-4 letters: aurochs, carhops, coprahs, cougars, curaghs, gauchos, rugosas, saguaro, sahuaro, sapours, sapsago, sarcous, scarphs, soucars, upsoars.
	-5 letters: acarus, across, agoras, cargos, carhop, carpus, charas, chorus, coprah, copras, corpus, cougar, coughs, croups, curagh, gaucho, graphs, grasps, grouch, groups, guacos, harass, hussar, pachas, pargos, parous, pashas, pharos, prahus, roughs, rugosa, sapors, sapour, sauchs, saughs, scarph, scarps, scaups, scaurs, scours, scrags, scraps, sharps, shrugs, soucar, soughs, sprags, sprugs, sugars, surahs, upsoar.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-g-h-o-p-r-s-s-u"
	+2 letters: sarcophaguses.
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.