crypt
crypt.
1. Large vaulted chamber (croft, croud, croude, crowd, crowde, shroud, or undercroft) beneath a church, wholly or partly underground, usually under the chancel, often divided into nave, aisles, and chapels, equipped with altars, and used for religious services and burials beneath the floor. They often had some degree of natural light, and were generally bigger than a confessio, though very small crypts, such as the Anglo-Saxon example at Hexham (C7) were little more than Relic-chambers. Ring-crypts were semicircular crypts inside and below an apse, originating with the basilica of San Pietro, Rome, in c.590: outer ring-crypts (called ambulatories) were characteristic of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, but a very early example, pre-dating those on the Continent, existed at All Saints Church, Brixworth, Northants. (c. C8 or later).
2. Burial-chamber.
1. Large vaulted chamber (croft, croud, croude, crowd, crowde, shroud, or undercroft) beneath a church, wholly or partly underground, usually under the chancel, often divided into nave, aisles, and chapels, equipped with altars, and used for religious services and burials beneath the floor. They often had some degree of natural light, and were generally bigger than a confessio, though very small crypts, such as the Anglo-Saxon example at Hexham (C7) were little more than Relic-chambers. Ring-crypts were semicircular crypts inside and below an apse, originating with the basilica of San Pietro, Rome, in c.590: outer ring-crypts (called ambulatories) were characteristic of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, but a very early example, pre-dating those on the Continent, existed at All Saints Church, Brixworth, Northants. (c. C8 or later).
2. Burial-chamber.
crypt
crypt / kript/ • n. 1. an underground room or vault beneath a church, used as a chapel or burial place.2. Anat. a small tubular gland, pit, or recess.
crypt
crypt XVIII. — L. crypta — Gr. krúptē vault, sb. use of fem. of kruptós hidden. Cf. GROT.
crypt
crypt (kript) n. a small sac, follicle, or cavity; for example, the crypts of Lieberkühn (see Lieberkühn's glands).
More From encyclopedia.com
chamber , cham·ber / ˈchāmbər/ • n. 1. a hall used by a legislative or judicial body. ∎ the body that meets in such a hall. ∎ any of the houses of a legislatur… Chamber Music , chamber music (It. musica da camera, Ger. Kammermusik). A term orig. intended (as Burney puts it c.1805) to cover such mus. as was not intended ‘for… Cloud Chamber , cloud chamber
cloud chamber, device used to detect elementary particles and other ionizing radiation. A cloud chamber consists essentially of a close… Whittaker Chambers , Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
In 1948 TIME magazine editor Whittaker Chambers (1901-1961) testified that in the 1930s he helped organize a Co… Hydrothermal Systems (geology) , magma chamber A region, postulated to exist below the Earth's surface, in which magma is received from a source region in the deep crust or upper man… United States Chamber Of Commerce , The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest not-for-profit federation of businesses, representing more than 3 million businesses and organiza…
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
crypt