Catafalque

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: cat=a=falque

CIDE DICTIONARY

Catafalque, n. [F., fr. It. catafalco, scaffold, funeral canopy; of uncertain origin; cf. Sp. catafalso, cadahalso, cadalso, Pr. casafalc, OF. chafaut. Cf. Scaffold.].

 A temporary structure sometimes used in the funeral solemnities of eminent persons, for the public exhibition of the remains, or their conveyance to the place of burial.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Catafalque, n. a decorated wooden framework for supporting the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral or while lying in state.

Etymology

F f. It. catafalco, of unkn. orig.: cf. SCAFFOLD

THESAURUS

Catafalque

balcony, dais, emplacement, estrade, floor, funeral car, gallery, hearse, heliport, hustings, landing, landing pad, landing stage, launching pad, platform, podium, pulpit, rostrum, soapbox, stage, step terrace, stump, terrace, tribunal, tribune

ROGET THESAURUS

Catafalque

Interment

N interment, burial, sepulture, inhumation, obsequies, exequies, funeral, wake, pyre, funeral pile, cremation, funeral, funeral rite, funeral solemnity, kneel, passing bell, tolling, dirge, cypress, orbit, dead march, muffled drum, mortuary, undertaker, mute, elegy, funeral, funeral oration, funeral sermon, epitaph, graveclothes, shroud, winding sheet, cerecloth, cerement, coffin, shell, sarcophagus, urn, pall, bier, hearse, catafalque, cinerary urn, grave, pit, sepulcher, tomb, vault, crypt, catacomb, mausoleum, Golgotha, house of death, narrow house, cemetery, necropolis, burial place, burial ground, grave yard, church yard, God's acre, tope, cromlech, barrow, tumulus, cairn, ossuary, bone house, charnel house, dead house, morgue, lich gate, burning ghat, crematorium, crematory, dokhma, mastaba, potter's field, stupa, Tower of Silence, sexton, gravedigger, monument, cenotaph, shrine, grave stone, head stone, tomb stone, memento mori, hatchment, stone, obelisk, pyramid, exhumation, disinterment, necropsy, autopsy, post mortem examination, zoothapsis, burried, burial, funereal, funebrial, mortuary, sepulchral, cinerary, elegiac, necroscopic, in memoriam, post obit, post mortem, beneath the sod, hic jacet, ci-git, RIP, requiescat in pace, the lone couch of his everlasting sleep, without a grave- unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown, in the dark union of insensate dust, the deep cold shadow of the tomb, Special Vitality.