catacomb

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an underground network of passages and chambers with recesses for burying the dead

   The archaeologists entered a catacomb lined with ancient burial niches.

2. 2
   noun

   figurative: a place containing a dense accumulation of bodies, bones, or relics of the dead

   The fossil bed seemed like a catacomb of extinct animals.

From Late Latin catacumbae, the name of the underground cemetery of Saint Sebastian near Rome. Its deeper origin is disputed; the word was later generalized from that site to underground burial galleries elsewhere.

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