Urn

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ɜːn/
• US IPA: /ɝn/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)n
• Homophones: earn

Origin

From Latin urna ("vessel").

Full definition of urn

Noun

1. a vase with a footed base
• Bishop WilkinsA rustic, digging in the ground by Padua, found an urn, or earthen pot, in which there was another urn.
• DrydenHis scattered limbs with my dead body burn,
  And once more join us in the pious urn.
2. a metal vessel for serving tea or coffee
3. a vessel for ashes or cremains of a deceased person
4. (figurative) Any place of burial; the grave.
• ShakespeareOr lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
  Tombless, with no remembrance over them.
5. (historical, Roman antiquity) A measure of capacity for liquids, containing about three gallons and a half, wine measure. It was half the amphora, and four times the congius.
6. (botany) A hollow body shaped like an urn, in which the spores of mosses are contained; a spore case; a theca.

Anagrams

• run