Sarcophagus definition

sär-kŏfə-gəs

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A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.

noun

Among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, a limestone coffin or tomb, often inscribed and elaborately ornamented.

noun

noun

(informal) The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed reactor at the power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine.

noun

Any stone coffin, esp. one on display, as in a monumental tomb.

noun

Other Word Forms

Singular:

sarcophagus

Plural:

sarcophagi, sarcophaguses

Latin from Greek sarkophagos coffin from (lithos) sarkophagos limestone that consumed the flesh of corpses laid in it sarx sark- flesh -phagos -phagous

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From French sarcophage, from Latin sarcophagus, from Ancient Greek σαρκοφάγος (sarkophagos, “coffin of limestone", noun), so named from a supposed property of consuming the flesh of corpses laid in it, from σαρκοφάγος (sarkophagos, “flesh-eating, carnivorous"), from genitive σαρκός (sarkos) of σάρξ (sarks, “flesh, meat") + -φάγος (-phagos) (from ἔφαγον (ephagon), past of φαγεῖν (phagein, “to eat"))

From Wiktionary