burial

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe act of burying; interment; placing remains into the earth.

   His whole family was present at his burial.

   3 more examples

   The mourners listened as the priest performed the burial service of long-time parishioner Wendy Stuart.

   A dreary year for the Squadron, this 1819, when officers and men fell sick by the shipload and were sent home by the tenderful, when Lemon Valley Hospital was supplemented by the one at High Peak, when Court-Martials were held at the rate of one a fortnight, burials thrice a week, and surveys on foul provisions every other day!

   1912, George Leo de St. M. Watson, Sir Robert Thomas Wilson, A Polish Exile with Napoleon, page 276

   However, many Cromlechs and Dolmins are carelessly called "Druid's circles", when in reality they were the burial places of ancient chieftains and their households[.]

   1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 206

In a sentence

His whole family was present at his burial.

Where it comes from

1. Old Englishbyrġels
2. Middle Englishbiriel
3. Englishburial

From Middle English biriel, a backformation from biriels, which was re-interpreted as a plural, itself from from Old English byrġels, from byrġan (“to bury”) + -els. By surface analysis, bury + -al, but originally unrelated to this suffix.