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''mausoleum'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

mausoleum - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

mausoleum (plural mausoleums or mausolea)

• A large stately tomb or a building housing such a tomb or several tombs.
  • ✤ Hypernym: vault
  • ✤ Holonym: cemetery
  • ✤ Coordinate terms: crypt, ossuary
• (by extension) A gloomy, usually large room or building.
  • ✤ As Amazon reaches maximum ubiquity in our lives (“Alexa, play Led Zeppelin”), as online shopping turns malls into mausoleums, it’s been illuminating to see exactly how a package makes the final leg of its journey.¹

Etymology

From Middle English mausoleum, from Latin Mausōlēum, from Ancient Greek Μαυσωλεῖον (Mausōleîon, “Mausoleum, the grand tomb built around 353–351 BCE at Halicarnassus for Mausolus, a ruler of Caria and satrap of the Achaemenid Empire; one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”), from Μαύσωλος (Maúsōlos, “Mausolus”) +‎ -εῖον (-eîon, noun-forming suffix meaning “place or building associated with a specific purpose or person”).

By surface analysis, Mausolus +‎ -eum.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˌmɔː.zəˈliː.əm/
• (US) IPA: /ˌmɔ.səˈli.əm/, enPR: mô’sə-lē’əm, IPA: /-.zəˈ-/, (cot–caught merger)/ˌmɑ.-/
• Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 2018 December 25, Austin Murphy, “I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon.”, in The Atlantic ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

Link to original

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