burial
n. C / Un. the act of putting a dead body into the ground. It can also mean the ceremony that happens when someone is buried.
n. the act or ceremony of interring a dead body in the ground or a tomb. Often used to refer to the entire funeral process or the specific physical placement of remains.
The burial takes place tomorrow morning.
The family requested a private burial at the local cemetery following the church service.
Archaeologists discovered an ancient burial site containing artifacts that suggest the civilization held complex beliefs about the afterlife and social hierarchy.
From Middle English beriel, a backformation from Old English byrġels, which was re-interpreted as a plural, itself from byrġan (“to bury”) + -els. By surface analysis, bury + -al, but originally unrelated to this suffix.
Countable when referring to a specific event or site; uncountable when referring to the general practice or act.