Cemetery offices, funeral homes and plot deeds use a vocabulary of their own, and many of the words sound alike. This glossary explains the terms families meet most often when buying a plot, arranging a burial, ordering a headstone or researching an ancestor, in plain English and in alphabetical order.
Burial and plots
Burial plot (grave, gravesite). A space in a cemetery for one in-ground burial. A plot purchase usually buys the right to be buried there, not the land itself. See How Long Do You Own a Cemetery Plot?
Companion plot. Two side-by-side graves sold together, usually for a couple, often with one shared headstone.
Double-depth (lawn crypt, "stacked") grave. One grave dug deep enough for two caskets, one above the other. It saves space and often cost. See Can Two People Be Buried in One Plot?
Family lot. A group of graves bought together by one family, sometimes marked with a central family monument and corner markers.
Section, block, lot, row, space. The layered address system cemeteries use to find a grave. How Are Cemetery Plots Organized? explains how to read one.
Cremation plot (urn garden). A small in-ground space for one or more urns, usually far less expensive than a full grave.
Interment. Placing remains in their final resting place. Burial in the ground is inhumation, placement in a crypt is entombment, and placement of an urn in a niche is inurnment.
Opening and closing. The cemetery's charge for preparing a grave or crypt and closing it after the burial. It is separate from the price of the plot.
Disinterment (exhumation). Removing remains from a grave, which usually requires a permit, the consent of next of kin and the cemetery's approval.
Right of interment (interment rights, burial rights). What a plot buyer actually purchases: the right to use a space for burial, under the cemetery's rules. The document is often called a deed or certificate of interment rights.
Pre-need. Buying a plot or arranging a funeral before it is needed. The opposite, arranging at the time of death, is called at-need.
Structures and containers
Burial vault. A sealed outer container of concrete, metal or composite that encloses the casket. Many cemeteries require a vault or liner to keep the ground from sinking.
Grave liner. A simpler, unsealed outer container, usually concrete, that serves the same structural purpose as a vault at a lower cost.
Outer burial container. The umbrella term for vaults and liners.
Casket and coffin. In the US, a casket is rectangular and a coffin is six-sided, wider at the shoulders. The words are often used interchangeably.
Crypt. A chamber for a casket above or below ground, typically inside a mausoleum.
Mausoleum. A building with crypts for entombment. A community mausoleum holds many people; a private or family mausoleum holds one family. See What Is a Mausoleum?
Columbarium. A structure with niches for urns of cremated remains. See What Is a Columbarium?
Niche. A single compartment in a columbarium, closed with a plate or glass front.
Cenotaph. A memorial to a person whose remains are buried somewhere else or were never recovered.
Receiving vault. A building, common in northern cemeteries before the 1900s, where bodies were stored through the winter until the ground thawed enough to dig graves.
Markers and memorials
Headstone (gravestone, tombstone). An upright stone memorial at the head of a grave. "Tombstone" originally meant a slab covering a tomb.
Flat (flush) marker. A marker set level with the ground so mowers can pass over it. Many memorial parks allow only these.
Bevel and slant markers. Low markers raised a few inches with a sloped face, between flat markers and upright headstones in cost.
Ledger. A flat stone slab covering the full length of a grave.
Footstone. A small stone at the foot of a grave, often with initials only.
Monument. A large or decorative memorial, such as an obelisk, statue or family monument.
Foundation (setting) fee. The cemetery's charge for pouring a concrete base and setting a memorial. Use the headstone cost calculator to budget for it. For the difference between styles, see Headstone vs Grave Marker.
Epitaph. The inscription on a memorial beyond the name and dates. Common symbols are explained in Gravestone Symbols and Their Meanings.
Types of cemeteries
Churchyard. A burial ground on the grounds of a church. A church cemetery may be some distance from the church it belongs to. Browse church cemeteries.
Memorial park. A cemetery, mostly founded after 1915, with lawns and flat markers instead of upright stones. Browse memorial parks.
Municipal cemetery. A cemetery owned and run by a town, city or county. Browse municipal cemeteries.
National cemetery. A federal cemetery, most run by the VA National Cemetery Administration, for eligible veterans and their families. Browse national cemeteries or check eligibility with the VA burial eligibility checker.
Family cemetery. A small private burial ground on land owned by a family, common in rural areas. Browse family cemeteries.
Potter's field. A public burial ground for unidentified people or those whose families could not pay for a burial.
Green (natural) burial ground. A cemetery where bodies are buried without embalming, vaults or non-biodegradable materials. A conservation burial ground also protects the land permanently. See What Is Green Burial?
Active and inactive (closed) cemetery. An active cemetery still sells plots or accepts burials; an inactive one does not, although owners of existing plots may still be buried there. See What Happens When a Cemetery Is Full?
Money and paperwork
Perpetual care (endowment care). A fund, often required by state law, whose income pays for ongoing maintenance of the grounds. See What Is Perpetual Care?
General Price List (GPL). The itemized price list every funeral home must give you under the FTC Funeral Rule. Use the burial cost calculator to compare quotes.
Burial permit (burial transit permit). A document from the local registrar, usually issued once the death certificate is filed, that allows burial, cremation or transport of remains.
Interment record (burial register). The cemetery's own record of who is buried where and when. It is one of the best sources for finding a grave. See How Do You Find Where Someone Is Buried?
DD Form 214. The military discharge document used to prove eligibility for veterans burial benefits.