boneyards

noun

plural of boneyard
as in cemeteries
a piece of land used for burying the dead a once-notorious gunslinger who now lies in the forlorn boneyard of an Old West ghost town

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of boneyards Many fire engines are mothballed in city boneyards, and the department has lost nearly 50 more firefighters since the Palisades fire. — Teresa Liu, Daily News, 4 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for boneyards
  1. cemeteries
  2. graveyards
Noun
  • The National Flag Foundation sent an American flag to all the states, territories and military cemeteries around the world.
    — Chris Hoffman, CBS News, 1 July 2026
  • Throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, churches, monasteries, mosques, synagogues, prayer houses, cemeteries, and religious schools have been damaged or destroyed.
    — Mark Temnycky, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026
Definition of cemeteries
Noun
  • The largest and deepest of these whale graveyards was discovered in the Diamantina Fracture Zone—a deep-sea trench located about 1,400 km (about 870 miles) off the coast of Western Australia in the Indian Ocean.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 June 2026
  • These graveyards form when whale carcasses fall to the sea floor, becoming a sustaining snack for nearby critters.
    — Adithi Ramakrishnan, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2026
Definition of graveyards

Browse Nearby Words

boneyard
boneyards
bonfire
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Boneyards.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/boneyards. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gambol

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All