crypt

Noun

1. A cave or cavern.
2. An underground vault.

   1. Especially: one beneath a church that is used as a burial chamber.

      • Near-synonyms: vault, tomb, sepulchre, sepulcher
      • She turned and waved a hand to him, she cried a word, but he didn't hear it, it was a lost word. A sable wraith she was in the parkland, fading away into the dolorous crypt of winter. - 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/2/1”, in...
      • On its arrival at Bank, incidentally, the City & South London's directors had threatened to demolish the church of St Mary Woolnoth, but after a public outcry the company built its station in the crypt of the church,...

      Synonyms: vault tomb sepulchre sepulcher

      Hypernyms: grave

      Coordinate Terms: grave charnel house mausoleum ossuary deadhouse catacomb cuniculus

3. A small pit or cavity in the surface of an organ or other structure.
   • Near-synonyms: fovea, fossa
   • Sometimes, too much foreign material can get caught in the crypts, leading to frequent infections. - 2015, Giulia Enders, translated by David Shaw, Gut, Scribe, published 2016, page 25:

   Synonyms: fovea fossa

4. Any of the genus Cryptocoryne of aquatic plants of southern and southeastern Asia.
5. Any of the genus Cryptopus of orchids of Madagascar and Mauritius.