crypt

noun

ˈkript 

1

a

: a chamber (such as a vault) wholly or partly underground

especially : a vault under the main floor of a church

b

: a chamber in a mausoleum

2

a

: an anatomical pit or depression

b

: a simple tubular gland

Did you know?

Hidden under the main floor of a great church is often a large room, often with a tomb as its centerpiece. Many major European churches were built over the remains of a saint—the Vatican's great St. Peter's Basilica is an example—and instead of having the coffin buried, it was often given its spacious room below ground level. In a large aboveground tomb, or mausoleum, there may be several small chambers for individual coffins, also called crypts; when the comic book Tales from the Crypt made its first appearance in 1950, it was this meaning that the authors were referring to.

Synonyms

• catacomb(s)
• vault

Examples of crypt in a Sentence

the old church's crypt is the final resting place for the president and his beloved wife

Recent Examples on the Web

Time to get back to Viti, tied up in the crypt and on the verge of freezing to death. —Andy Andersen, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2024

His remains are in an urn, in a crypt in the medieval cathedral in the town of Santiago de Compostela. —Alex Ledsom, Forbes, 27 Sep. 2024

In the crypt, things are looking grim for Pope and Sarah, who are trapped below ground with seemingly no way out. —Christy Piña, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019

Shortly after, Lightner and Dalia used the amulet to enter a box in the crypt, leading them to discover a script that likely leads to the Blue Crown that the Pogues are hunting for. —Jordana Comiter, People.com, 16 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin crypta, crupta "covered passage, underground room," borrowed from Greek kryptḗ "underground room," noun derivative from feminine of kryptós "hidden, secret," verbal adjective of krýptein "to hide, conceal," of uncertain origin

Note: The verb krýptein is phonetically and semantically close to kalýptein "to cover, conceal," and the two may have influenced each other. Other forms with which krýptein has been compared, such as Old Church Slavic kryjǫ, kryti "to cover, hide, shroud," Lithuanian kráuju, kráuti "to pile up," are too distant phonetically to allow realistic reconstruction of an Indo-European verbal base. The alternation in consonants between kryp- (in krýptein, kryptós), kryb- (in krýbdēn "secretly"), and kryph- (in kryphêi "in secret," -kryphos "hidden") is apparently the result of both assimilation and analogy.

First Known Use

1583, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

crypt

noun

ˈkript 

: an underground chamber

also : a chamber for burial

Medical Definition

crypt

noun

ˈkript 

1

: an anatomical pit, depression, or invagination

a developing tooth in its bony crypt

see tonsillar crypt

2

: a simple tubular gland (as a crypt of Lieberkühn)