grave mound
- noun
- /ɡreɪv maʊnd/
- Specialized
:
túmulo
- The nomadic Scythians littered the steps with grave mounds known as Korgans.
Examples
-
It was Aaron who wanted to walk to the Indian grave mounds.
Fiction book (1990) -
I would have liked to walk with him over a grassy old Norwegian grave mound.
Academic text (2009) -
The young dandelions on the grave mound struck me with their simple yet inaccessible truth.
Academic text (2009) -
From the air, they resemble ancient tumuli or grave mounds, but no one is buried at Nazca.
Fiction book (1991) -
The ancient grave mound in the forest is a reminder of the people who lived there long ago.
-
She discovered a burial site with several grave mounds during her archaeological dig.
-
The archaeologist explained the significance of the grave mound as a burial tradition in prehistoric cultures.
Synonyms
4
7.1
A mound of earth or stones built over a grave, often in ancient times
1
9.9
A mound of earth and stones made over a grave in ancient times
1
9.5
A large round mound of earth or stones covering an old grave
A sacred burial mound or tomb from ancient Andean culture
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'grave' (a burial site) + 'mound' (a raised heap of earth): together they denote a raised heap over a grave. This noun–noun compounding follows regular English formation and is cross-linguistically intuitive, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Grave mound comes from the simple image of a heap of earth placed over a dead person. Long ago people would make a mound above a grave as a 'burial' marker, so the phrase means a man-made hill that covers a grave.