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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

catafalque

American English · Video pronunciation

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:25
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What does catafalque mean?

noun

  1. A platform used to display or convey a coffin during a funeral, often ornate.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

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In the pages of books

See this word in context.

"The mirage of fancy invested the huge catafalque and its gloomy pall with peculiar charms."
Thomas WrightThe Life of Sir Richard BurtonProject Gutenberg ebook #4315
They first went to the gallery, then the head priest came down into the sacrificial hall and made nine prostrations before the catafalque, without, however, pouring or offering wine.
Isaac Taylor HeadlandCourt Life in China: The Capital, Its Officials and PeopleProject Gutenberg ebook #523
More book examples (2)
In the dim candle-light and the faint glow of the fire that scarce illumined the wainscoted room the high tester-bed of the old lady, with its curtains, had seemed like a shadowed catafalque, an illusion nothing lessened by the frail old figure under the bedclothing.
Victor MacClureShe Stands AccusedProject Gutenberg ebook #488
And he saw before him a plump, rather sallow-faced, short, stout woman, the Empress Mother, with her smile and her words at her first gracious reception of him, and then that same face on the catafalque, and the encounter he had with Zúbov over her coffin about his right to kiss her hand.
Leo, graf TolstoyWar and PeaceTranslated by Aylmer Maude; Louise MaudeProject Gutenberg ebook #2600