immure means A wall; an enclosure. It carries an Arena rating of 1803, earned across 26 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, immure ranks #23 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #581 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,376 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #2,456 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
immure is pronounced /ɪˈmjʊə(ɹ)/.
Why “immure” is a great word
To enclose or confine someone or something within or as if within walls. From Latin immūrō, from in- ("in, within") + mūrus ("wall"), first attested in English in the 1580s. Unlike "incarcerate," which denotes formal, legal imprisonment, or "seclude," which implies mere removal from society, to "immure" is to be defined fundamentally by architecture, to be made one with the masonry. It is the nun taking her final vows behind the convent grate, the forgotten heir bricked into a castle wall, the self chosen solitude that builds its own barriers higher each year—a final, quiet becoming of the wall itself.
Etymology
From Middle English enmuren and Middle French emmurer, both from Old French enmurer, from Latin immūrō, from in- + mūrus (“wall”). Modern spelling is modelled after the Latin.
noun
- A wall; an enclosure.e.g.“[…]Troy, within whose strong emures[…]” — c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[w
verb
- To cloister, confine, imprison or hole up: to lock someone up or seclude oneself behind walls.
- To put or bury within a wall.e.g.“John's body was immured Thursday in the mausoleum.”
- To wall in.
- To trap or capture (an impurity); chiefly in the participial adjective immured and gerund or gerundial noun immuring.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.