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

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 ->

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# 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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tomb

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