tumulus means A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow. It carries an Arena rating of 1366, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tumulus ranks #1,564 of 17,093 for Most Storied Words, #1,681 of 17,113 for Most Elegant Words, #1,801 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,730 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words.
tumulus is pronounced /ˈtjuːmjələs/.
Why “tumulus” is a great word
A mound of earth and stones deliberately raised, most often to cover and commemorate a prehistoric burial. From the Latin tumulus ("mound, hill"), from tumeō ("to swell"). Unlike a cairn (a stacked landmark of stones) or a crypt (an architectural chamber for the dead), a tumulus is the earth itself made a monument, a swelling of the ground into a permanent, silent pronoun. It is the long barrow on the downs, grass-grown and sheep-trampled; the beehive dome of a Bronze Age chieftain; the sudden, palpable rise in a flat field that makes you pause—the landscape remembering a body by becoming one.
Etymology
From Latin tumulus (“mound, hill”), from tumeō (“to swell”). Doublet of tombolo.
noun
- A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.e.g.“They planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country, and formed themselves into column and hollow square.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- gravemound 74% match — A tumulus over a tomb. vs tumulus →
- dolmen 67% match — A prehistoric megalithic tomb consisting of a capstone supported by two or more upright stones, most having originally been covered with earth or smaller stones to form a barrow. vs tumulus →
- tumulous 67% match — Full of small hills or mounds; hilly; tumulose. vs tumulus →
- burgh 65% match — a small mound, often used in reference to tumuli (mostly restricted to place names). vs tumulus →
- tump 64% match — A mound or hillock. vs tumulus →
- tumulosity 61% match — Bump, mound, or bumpiness. vs tumulus →
- burian 60% match — A tomb; sepulchre. vs tumulus →
- cairn 60% match — A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument. vs tumulus →