crypt

1 of 2

noun

ˈkript

Synonyms of crypt next

: a chamber (such as a vault) wholly or partly underground

especially : a vault under the main floor of a church

: a chamber in a mausoleum

: an anatomical pit or depression

: a simple tubular gland

crypt-

2 of 2

combining form

variants or crypto-

: hidden : covered

cryptogenic

: cryptographic

cryptanalysis

Did you know?

Hidden under the main floor of a great church is often a large room, often with a tomb as its centerpiece. Many major European churches were built over the remains of a saint—the Vatican's great St. Peter's Basilica is an example—and instead of having the coffin buried, it was often given its spacious room below ground level. In a large aboveground tomb, or mausoleum, there may be several small chambers for individual coffins, also called crypts; when the comic book Tales from the Crypt made its first appearance in 1950, it was this meaning that the authors were referring to.

Example Sentences

Noun the old church's crypt is the final resting place for the president and his beloved wife

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The towering obelisk monument, which includes a crypt holding the remains of people murdered during the Nazi genocide, was created by Holocaust survivors in 1961. —

Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 30 Dec. 2022 After the Mass, Benedict’s cypress coffin was placed inside a zinc one, then an outer oak casket before being entombed in the crypt in the grottoes underneath St. Peter’s Basilica that once held the tomb of St. John Paul II before it was moved upstairs. —

Nicole Winfield, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Jan. 2023 Created by Nigerian artist Victor Ehikhamenor, Still Standing is a mixed-media depiction of a Benin ruler that will be on display in the Anglican cathedral’s crypt through May 14, according to Artnet News. —

Jane Recker, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Mar. 2022 The castle now belongs to the family of an Italian lawyer who purchased the fortified island in 1912 and began restoration of its battlements, churches, convents, crypts and gardens. —

Joe Yogerst, CNN, 11 May 2023 Long-standing plans are underway to allow people to access the crypts at the Cuelgamuros mausoleum, which are thought to house the unidentified remains of 34,000 people, including many victims of the Franco regime. —

Patrick Smith, NBC News, 24 Apr. 2023 Fury is seen wandering through misty forests and mysterious crypts in the new trailer. —

Brandon Livesay, Peoplemag, 3 Apr. 2023 In 2020, the city reopened the crypt beneath Notre Dame, which was filled with toxic lead dust from the blaze, as well as the public plaza in front of the cathedral's main entrance. —

Alison Fox, Travel + Leisure, 7 Mar. 2023 So green burials do not use stones or mausoleums or crypts or anything like that. —

Quartz Staff, Quartz, 7 Mar. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crypt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

borrowed from Latin crypta, crupta "covered passage, underground room," borrowed from Greek kryptḗ "underground room," noun derivative from feminine of kryptós "hidden, secret," verbal adjective of krýptein "to hide, conceal," of uncertain origin

Note: The verb krýptein is phonetically and semantically close to kalýptein "to cover, conceal," and the two may have influenced each other. Other forms with which krýptein has been compared, such as Old Church Slavic kryjǫ, kryti "to cover, hide, shroud," Lithuanian kráuju, kráuti "to pile up," are too distant phonetically to allow realistic reconstruction of an Indo-European verbal base. The alternation in consonants between kryp- (in krýptein, kryptós), kryb- (in krýbdēn "secretly"), and kryph- (in kryphêi "in secret," -kryphos "hidden") is apparently the result of both assimilation and analogy.