coffin

B1 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈkɔfɪn/ UK /ˈkɒfɪn/ See IPA manual

Freq #4583

Meanings

1

noun
A long box in which a dead person is buried or cremated.

Six men carried the coffin slowly into the church.
2

verb
To place a dead body into a coffin.

The body was coffined before the funeral.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a long box in which a dead... casket

2 verb · to place a dead body into a... encoffin

Word family

Forms coffins

Derived forms coffinfulcoffinlesscoffinlikecoffinmakercoffinmakingencoffinencoffinerencoffinmentrecoffinuncoffin

Simplified etymology

Coffin came into Middle English from Old French cofin, meaning a small basket, and could refer to a chest, a casket, or even a pie. Its sense of a box in which a dead body is buried or cremated dates from the early 16th century. Coffin and coffer share the Greek source kophinos, meaning basket.

Etymology

From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer.

coffyn Middle English cofin fro-nor cophinus Latin κόφινος Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# coffin

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈkɔfɪn/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈkɒfɪn/
**Frequency rank:** 4583

## Meanings
1. A long box in which a dead person is buried or cremated.
2. To place a dead body into a coffin.

## Examples
- Six men carried the coffin slowly into the church.
- The body was coffined before the funeral.

## Derived Forms
- coffinful
- coffinless
- coffinlike
- coffinmaker
- coffinmaking
- encoffin
- encoffiner
- encoffinment
- recoffin
- uncoffin

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: coffyn
- Root: cofin
- Root: cophinus
- Root: κόφινος

## Etymology
From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer.

## AI Etymology
coffin is a verb and noun. It is from Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer. Historical forms in the chain include coffyn (Middle English), cofin (Old Northern French), cophinus (Latin), and κόφινος (Ancient Greek). Current senses include a long box in which a dead person is buried or cremated and to place a dead body into a coffin. Derived forms include coffinful, coffinless, coffinlike, coffinmaker, and coffinmaking.

## Topics
- People & Society

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