Standard Lemma guide

pyre

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈpaɪɚ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)
  • CMU ARPABET: P AY1 ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which corpses are burned.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The villagers built a funeral pyre to honor their dead.
  • The effigy was set ablaze on the pyre.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any heap or pile of combustibles.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Flames rose high from the pyre in the night sky.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: funeral pyre

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pile, heap, mound, agglomerate, cumulation, cumulus

History

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin pyra (“pyre, funeral pile”), from Ancient Greek πυρά (purá), from πῦρ (pûr, “fire”). Doublet of fire.

Across languages

Translations

41 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: клада (klada) — funeral pile
  • Catalan: pira — funeral pile
  • Chinese Mandarin: 火葬用的柴堆 — funeral pile
  • Czech: hranice — funeral pile
  • Danish: ild — funeral pile
  • Dutch: brandstapel — funeral pile
  • Estonian: tuleriit — funeral pile
  • Finnish: hautarovio — funeral pile
  • Finnish: rovio — funeral pile
  • French: bûcher — funeral pile
  • German: Scheiterhaufen — funeral pile
  • Greek: πυρά (pyrá) — funeral pile
  • Ancient Greek: πυρά (purá) — funeral pile
  • Hindi: चिता (citā) — funeral pile
  • Hungarian: máglya — funeral pile
  • Irish: breocharn — funeral pile
  • Italian: pira — funeral pile
  • Italian: rogo — funeral pile
  • Latin: rogus — funeral pile
  • Latin: pyra — funeral pile
  • Malayalam: ചിത (cita) — funeral pile
  • Norwegian Bokmål: likbål — funeral pile
  • Old English: ād — funeral pile
  • Polish: stos pogrzebowy — funeral pile
  • Portuguese: pira — funeral pile
  • Romanian: rug — funeral pile
  • Russian: погреба́льный костёр (pogrebálʹnyj kostjór) — funeral pile
  • Serbo-Croatian: pogrebna lòmača — funeral pile
  • Slovak: hranica — funeral pile
  • Spanish: pira — funeral pile
  • Swedish: bål — funeral pile
  • Telugu: చితి (citi) — funeral pile
  • Urdu: چتا (citā) — funeral pile
  • Welsh: coelcerth — funeral pile
  • Finnish: kokko — heap of combustibles
  • Finnish: rovio — heap of combustibles
  • German: Feuerstapel — heap of combustibles
  • Norwegian Bokmål: bål — heap of combustibles
  • Serbo-Croatian: lomača — heap of combustibles
  • Swedish: bål — heap of combustibles
  • Swedish: kase — heap of combustibles