Word Meaning

Meaning of sarcophagus

- A species of limestone used among the Greeks for making coffins, which was so called because it consumed within a few weeks the flesh of bodies deposited in it. It is otherwise called lapis Assius, or Assian stone, and is said to have been found at Assos, a city of Lycia.
- A coffin or chest-shaped tomb of the kind of stone described above; hence, any stone coffin.
- A stone shaped like a sarcophagus and placed by a grave as a memorial.