excarnation

E1X8C3A1R1N1A1T1I1O1N1

noun

The act of removing flesh.

Scrabble 20

Meanings

nounexcarnation (countable and uncountable, plural excarnations)

plural excarnations

  1. countableuncountableThe act of removing flesh.
  2. countableuncountableThe burial practice of removing (or causing to be removed) the flesh and organs of the dead, leaving only the bones, especially the practice of laying out corpses for vultures to strip bare.

    Vultures seem to have been used for a funeral practice of excarnation: after the flesh had been cleaned from the bones, the bones were interred in the shrines.

    1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 144
Cite this entry
APA

excarnation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/excarnation

MLA

“excarnation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/excarnation. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “excarnation,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/excarnation.

Source: excarnation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.