crypt

1. An underground vault or chamber, especially one beneath a church that is used as a burial place.
2. Anatomy. A small pit, recess, or glandular cavity in the body.

[Latin crypta, from Greek kruptē, from feminine of kruptos, hidden, from kruptein, to hide.]

(click to enlarge)
Crypt, Canterbury Cathedral (12th century), England. (credit: A.F. Kersting)

Subterranean chamber, usually under a church floor. The catacombs of the early Christians were known as cryptae, and when churches came to be built over the tombs of saints and martyrs, subterranean chapels were built around the actual tomb. As early as the reign of Constantine I (AD 306 – 37), the crypt was considered a normal part of a church. Later its size was increased to include the entire space beneath the choir or chancel; the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral is an elaborate underground church with its own apse. Many secular medieval European buildings also had richly decorated crypts.

For more information on crypt, visit Britannica.com.

noun

A burial place or receptacle for human remains: catacomb, cinerarium, grave, mausoleum, ossuary, sepulcher, sepulture, tomb, vault. See keep/release, place.

1. A story in a church below or partly below ground level and under the main floor, particularly of the chancel, often containing chapels and sometimes tombs.
2. A hidden subterranean chamber or complex of chambers and passages.

crypt

A blind pit or tube on a free surface.

• anal c's — furrows, with pouchlike recesses at the caudal end, separating the rectal columns; called also anal sinuses.
• c's of Lieberkühn — the lumen of intestinal glands on the surface of the intestinal mucous membrane.
• tongue c. — deep, irregular invaginations from the surface of the lingual tonsil.
• tonsillar c's — epithelium-lined clefts in the palatine tonsils.

In a dream a crypt or a catacomb can represent the womb. Alternatively, a space beneath the ground often represents the unconscious mind. (See also Burial; Coffin; Dead/Death; Grave; Hearse).

Dansk (Danish)
n. - krypt

Nederlands (Dutch)
crypte

Français (French)
n. - crypte

Deutsch (German)
n. - Krypta

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (αρχιτ.) κρύπτη (ναού), (ανατ.) αδενική κοιλότητα, κρύπτη

Italiano (Italian)
cripta

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cripta (f)

Русский (Russian)
склеп

Español (Spanish)
n. - cripta, folículo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - krypta, gravvalv

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
土窖, 地下室, 地穴

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 土窖, 地下室, 地穴

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 토굴, 지하실

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - あなぐら, 陰窩

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) قبو, سرداب‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אולם תת-קרקעי, קריפטה, בלוטה קטנה דמוית-צינור בגוף‬

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