vivisepulture

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/ˌvɪvɪˈsɛpəlt͡ʃə(ɹ)//ˌvɪvɪˈsɛpəltjʊə(ɹ)/

noun

The practice of burying someone alive.

OriginLatin vivus →
Scrabble 21
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Meanings

nounvivisepulture (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe practice of burying someone alive.

    As in most hot climates so in Egypt the dead are buried at once despite the risk of vivisepulture. This seems an instinct with the Semitic (Arabian) race teste Abraham, as with the Gypsy.

    1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC
    1 more example

    Thus, to characterize the Victorian worry about premature burial as a product of 'morbid romanticism,' or of the 'sheer mythopoeic force' of vivisepulture, is to ignore the deep confusion over human physiology that persisted into the twentieth century.

    2003 April, Journal of British Studies

Origin

  1. Latinvivus“alive”
  2. Englishvivisepulture

From Latin vivus (“alive”) + sepulture.

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

vivisepulture. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vivisepulture

MLA

“vivisepulture.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vivisepulture. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vivisepulture,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vivisepulture.

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