tomb

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /tum/ UK /tuːm/ See IPA manual

Freq #5105

Meanings

1

noun
A grave or stone structure where a dead person is buried.

Tourists visit the ancient tomb of the pharaoh.
2

noun
Death, used in a literary way.

He swore he would go to the tomb unrepentant.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a grave or stone structure... grave sepulchre vault

Word family

Forms tombs

Derived forms disentombentombtomblesstombliketombstone

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

portal tomb
a prehistoric stone tomb with large upright entrance stones supporting a capstone

Noun + noun

Etymology

From Middle English tombe, toumbe, borrowed from Old French tombe, from Latin tumba from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “a sepulchral mound, tomb, grave”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”). The verb is from Middle English tomben.

tombe Middle English tumba Latin τύμβος Ancient Greek *tewh₂- Proto-Indo-European tomben Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Register & Style

External links

# tomb

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /tum/
**IPA (UK):** /tuːm/
**Frequency rank:** 5105

## Meanings
1. A grave or stone structure where a dead person is buried.
2. Death, used in a literary way.

## Examples
- Tourists visit the ancient tomb of the pharaoh.
- He swore he would go to the tomb unrepentant.

## Derived Forms
- disentomb
- entomb
- tombless
- tomblike
- tombstone

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: tombe
- Root: tumba
- Root: τύμβος
- Root: *tewh₂-
- Root: tomben

## Etymology
From Middle English tombe, toumbe, borrowed from Old French tombe, from Latin tumba from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “a sepulchral mound, tomb, grave”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”). The verb is from Middle English tomben.

## AI Etymology
Tomb is from Middle English tombe, toumbe, borrowed from Old French tombe, from Latin tumba from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “a sepulchral mound, tomb, grave”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”). The verb is from Middle English tomben. The historical line also includes Middle English tombe, Old French tombe, Latin tumba, Ancient Greek τύμβος, Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂-, Middle English tomben. In present-day use, it can mean a grave or stone structure where a dead person is buried, or death, used in a literary way.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Register & Style

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