pyre

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large pile of wood on which a dead body is burned as a funeral rite.

   The villagers built a funeral pyre to honour their dead chief.

2. 2
   noun

   Any large heap of material built to be burned.

   Flames rose high from the pyre of old furniture in the field.

Learned borrowing from Latin pyra (“pyre, funeral pile”), from Ancient Greek πυρά (purá), from πῦρ (pûr, “fire”). Doublet of fire.

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