Death Rituals-Cemetery Language
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Adipocere (grave wax)-a grayish, cheese-like substance that may result from a corpse being left in the water or in cool, moist soil

Airtray-a container used to ship caskets or bodies by air

Barrow-a mound of dirt or stones on top of a grave

Bier-a stand for a corpse prior to burial and transportation to the grave

Burial chest-casket

Burial chamber-repository for corpses

Burial Ground-an area of land where dead bodies are buried.  (used with Native Americans a great deal)

Burial mound-a mound of dirt on top of a corpse

Burial vault-expensive version of a grave liner

Cairn-a mound of stones that server as a grave marker or memorial 

Call-funeral

Case-funeral

Casket-coffin

Catacomb-a series of underground passages and rooms where bodies were buried in the past 

Catafalque-casket standard

Cemetery-an area of ground in which dead bodies are buried, esp. one which is not next to a church 

  Cenotaph-a public monument built in memory of particular people who died in war, often with their names written on it  (empty tomb)

Charnel (house)-a place for storing bones or corpses 

Cinerarium-a place for storing ashes, kept in cinerary jars

Coffin-a box in which a corpse is placed to rest

Columbarium-A sepulchral chamber with niches for holding cinerary urns. (Websters)

Committal chamber-entrance to a crematorium 

Contumulation-lying in the same tomb as another (Forthrights)

  Corpse-a dead body, usually of a person 

  Coffin-a long box in which a dead person is buried or burnt 

Cortege-funeral procession 

  Crematorium-a building where dead people's bodies are burnt, usually as part of a funeral ceremony 

  Cromlech-a dolmen (=an ancient group of stones consisting of one large flat stone supported by several vertical ones) 

  Crypt-a room under the floor of a church where bodies are often buried 

Death knell-something announcing a death, such as church bells

Death mask-a cast made of a face after death; Roman actors used these casts in plays and Madame Tussaud made these of people killed during the French Revolution

Direct burial-an immediate burial without a viewing because there is no embalming performed

Dirge-mournful musical compositions, poems or other works

  Dolmen-an ancient group of stones consisting of one large flat stone supported by several vertical ones 

Elegy-a poem that mourns someone or something lost

Entomb-to put into a tomb or grave

  Epitaph-a short piece of writing or a poem about a dead person, esp. one written on their grave 

Eulogy-speech of praise about someone who has died

Ghost-spirit of a dead person

Grave-place of burial

Grave liner-burial vault

Grave marker-something placed at the grave as a remembrance of the dead person

Grave robber-someone who steals bodies from graves

Gravestone-a stone placed at a grave to mark it

Headstone-stone set on a grave

  Hearse-a vehicle used to carry a body in a coffin to a funeral 

Hermetically sealed-an almost completely airtight casket to prevent the release of odors 

Immurement-to entomb in walls

Inhumation-burial

  Inhumist-referring to a society that burns its dead (Forthrights)

Interment-burial

Inurnment-putting ashes in an urn

Kneeler-a stool placed at a casket that can be kneeled on

  Lich-A dead body; a corpse. (Webster)

  Mausoleum-an important-looking building in which the bodies of dead people are buried 

Mausoleum-a large, elaborate tomb or building that holds a bunch of these tombs

  Megalith-a large stone, sometimes forming part of a group or circle, which is thought to have been important to people in the distant past for social or religious reasons 

Memorial niche-a place to store urns

  Monument-an object, esp. large and made of stone, built to remember and show respect to a person or group of people, or a special place made for this purpose 

Morgue-a place where bodies are storied until they are identified or buried

  Mortuary-a building, or a room in a hospital, where dead bodies are kept so that they can be examined before the funeral 

  Mummy-(esp. in ancient Egypt) a dead body that has been preserved from decay by being treated with special substances before being wrapped in cloth

Necropolis-city of the dead 

  Ossuary-A place where the bones of the dead are deposited; a charnel house. (Webster)

Perpetual care-eternal cemetery upkeep

Pet cemetery-a cemetery for pets

  Placophobia-fear of tombstones

  Psychomancy-The art of revealing future events by means of a pretended communication with the dead (Webster)

Pyre-a pile of things to burn a corpse on

Reliquary-a container for holding relics

  Sarcophagus-a stone coffin, which was used in ancient times and is often decorated 

  Sepulcher-a stone structure where someone is buried 

Sepulture-burial or a sepulcher 

Shitai-Japanese term for corpse

Slip coffin-a coffin with a removable floor so that the bodies can be left and the coffin used again

Stele-a commemorative stone or sculpture on a monument

  Suttee-the Hindu custom, which is no longer legal, of a woman being burnt alive in the same fire as that in which her dead husband's body is burnt 

Taphophile- one who loves cemeteries and funerals

  Tomb-a large stone structure or underground room where someone, esp. an important person, is buried 

Tombstone-a gravestone

Tumulus-a burial mound

  Vault-A vault is also a room under a church or is a small building in a cemetery (=area of ground used for burying dead bodies) where dead bodies are kept. 

  Vivisepulture-practice of burying people alive

  Wake-a gathering of the family and friends of a dead person in order to look at the dead body the night before it is buried, or a gathering held after a dead person has been buried, at which their family and friends drink and talk about the person's life