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pyre

UK/ˈpaɪɚ/US/ˈpaɪɚ/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,039 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: pyres

A pyre is a pile of wood built to burn a body on. A funeral pyre, light the pyre, build the pyre.

Open-air cremation on one is the traditional Hindu and Sikh rite and is still the normal practice in India and Nepal. The word is a doublet of fire: both go back to the same ancient root, arriving in English by quite different roads.

Davenbelle~commonswiki · Public domain

Definitions of pyre

  1. 1nounpyreA pile of wood built to burn a body on.C2

    “The warriors laid their fallen chief on a pyre and set it alight.”

pyre is a structure.

Remember it

The Greek behind it is simply fire. A pyre is the pile of wood built to make one, with a body on top.

hooks ontofire

Where it comes from

Latin pyra comes from Greek pyra, from pyr, fire. English fire is a distant relative of the same root.

  1. Ancient Greek

    πυρά

  2. Latin

    pyra — pyre, funeral pile

  3. English, today

    pyre

Built from

  • πῦρ · Ancient Greek — fire

Latin pyra (“pyre, funeral pile”), from Ancient Greek πυρά, from πῦρ (“fire”). a doublet of fire.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

pyre in the wild

  • A pyre 'fire'), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution.

    Pyre

  • As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the pyre, which is then set on fire.

    Pyre

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.