ossuary
/ˈɒsjʊəɹi/
"ossuary" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ossuary” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A container, receptacle, or building, such as an urn or vault, for holding the bones of the dead.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ossuary · ossuary · English
ossuary · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ossuary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɒsjʊəɹi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ossuary” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ossuary is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɒsjʊəɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A container, receptacle, or building, such as an urn or vault, for holding the bones of the dead.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ossuary, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Latin ossuārium (“charnel house”), from ossuārius (“of or for bones”), from compound of Latin os (“bone”) + adjectival suffix -ārius (“of, related to”). The correct English form is ossuary, spelled O-S-S-U-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A container, receptacle, or building, such as an urn or vault, for holding the bones of the dead.
Etymology
From Late Latin ossuārium (“charnel house”), from ossuārius (“of or for bones”), from compound of Latin os (“bone”) + adjectival suffix -ārius (“of, related to”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.