Alternative container: A container which does not meet the standards of a burial casket and is used to hold human remains for cremation. It is usually made of heavy cardboard or chipboard.
Apportionment: Dividing cremated remains into portions for separate disposition. For example, a set of cremated remains could be divided into three portions, with one portion placed in an urn in a columbarium, another portion scattered in a favorite place, and yet another carried in a locket.
Burial: Also interment. Placing human remains in a grave in the earth or in an underground tomb.
Burial Permit (or certificate): Legal permission from local authorities for the burial to occur. It may also authorize cremation or removal of the remains to a distant place.
Burial Garments: Clothing made especially for the dead.
Burial Insurance: See funeral insurance.
Casket: Also called a burial case. A container made from wood, metal or plastic into which a body is placed for burial.
Catafalque: A stand for holding the casket in state during visitation and the funeral service.
Cenotaph: An empty tomb, monument or plaque erected in memory of a person whose remains lie elsewhere.
Certified Death Certificate: A legal copy of the original death certificate, issued by local authorities at the request of family members, for the purposes of substantiating claims for insurance etc.
Coffin: An English style, wedge shaped casket, usually with 6 sides.
Columbarium: A building or part of a building containing niches designed to hold and memorialize cremated remains.
Committal service: The final part of a funeral service during which the remains are buried or entombed.
Cremated Remains: Also called ashes. The portion of a body remaining after cremation. For an adult this is about 6 to 8 pounds of bone fragments.
Cremation: Reduction of the body to cremated remains by fire or intense heat.
Cremation Permit: A certificate issued by the local authority authorizing cremation of the deceased.
Crematory: A specially designed furnace for cremating human remains, or a building housing such a furnace.
Crypt: Vault or room used for keeping remains.
Death Certificate: A legal document signed by a physician showing cause of death and other information about the deceased.
Death Notice: A paragraph in the relevant section of the newspaper informing people of a person's death and giving those funeral details the survivors wish published. Most list the names of the deceased person's close relatives.
Disinter: Also Exhume. To dig up the remains from the burial place. This may occur when a family wishes to re bury the remains in a family plot or move them to another cemetery.
Door Badge: A floral arrangement placed on a door of a residence to announce that a death has occurred.
Embalming: Filling the arteries, veins and body cavities of the deceased with antiseptic and preservative to delay the decay process.
Entombment: Placing the body in a tomb.
Family Car: A limousine used by immediate family in the funeral procession.
Final Disposition: The last process the remains go through, for example burial, cremation, burial of cremated remains.
First Call: The funeral director's first visit to the place of death in order to remove the remains and obtain any information which is needed immediately.
Funeral Coach: Also casket coach or hearse. Motor vehicle designed to convey the casket from the funeral service to the place of burial in the cemetery.
Funeral Director: Also mortician, undertaker. A trained and certified professional who arranges and supervises the burial or cremation of human remains.
Funeral Insurance: Also burial insurance. An insurance policy, normally written for a small amount, which provides money for a funeral upon the death of the person insured.
Funeral Procession: A procession, usually in motor vehicles, from the church or chapel to the cemetery.
Funeral Spray: A floral tribute sent in memory of the deceased to their residence or to the funeral.
Grave: A hole excavated in the ground for the purposes of burial.
Grave Liner: A receptacle made of concrete, metal, plastic or wood used to line the grave to protect the remains and to prevent the grave from collapsing.
Honorary Pallbearers: Friends, or members of a religious, social, fraternal or military organization, who act as an honor guard or escort for the deceased. They do not carry the casket.
Inquest: An official inquiry, sometimes before a jury, to determine the cause of death.
Inter: To bury in a grave or tomb.
Inurnment: Placing cremated remains in an urn.
Mausoleum: A building containing above ground tombs or crypts.
Memorial Marker: A marker used to identify a grave, crypt, urn placement site or other place of final disposition. Permanent markers are usually of metal or stone and give the name of the deceased, their dates of birth and death, and sometimes a sentimental message.
Memorial Service: A service conducted in memory of the deceased when the remains are not present.
Minister's Room: A room in the funeral home set aside for the use of the clergy person or officiant before and after a funeral service.
Morgue: A place where human remains are kept pending autopsy or identification.
Mortician: See Funeral director.
Mortuary: See Funeral home.
Mourner: Someone who is present at the funeral out of love and/or respect for the deceased.
Niche: A hollow space in a wall made for placing urns. It may be indoors or outdoors.
Niche Garden: An outdoor garden containing structures with niches.
Obituary: A notice, usually in the newspaper, containing biographical details of the deceased.
Pallbearers: Those who carry the casket during a funeral service. They are usually friends and relatives.
Plot: A privately owned piece of ground in a cemetery which contains two or more grave sites.
Prearranged Funeral: A funeral which has been arranged and paid for before the person's death.
Prearranged Funeral Trust: A trust fund where money for prearranged funerals is held until needed. In most States trusts are established under State law and/or supervision.
Preparation Room: A specially designed room in the funeral home equipped for preparing the deceased for final disposition.
Register: A book containing details about the deceased and the funeral service which can be signed by all those attending. It is then given to the immediate family.
Remains: The dead body of the deceased person.
Slumber Room: A room containing a bed on which the deceased lies until being placed in a casket. In some cases the deceased my lie in state in the slumber room.
Survivors: Those who have outlived the deceased, especially family members.
Tomb: A chamber excavated from earth or rock specifically for receiving human remains.
Transit Permit: A permit issued by a local authority allowing a body to be transported to the place of burial or cremation.
Urn: A container, usually of metal, wood or porcelain, into which cremated remains are permanently placed.
Vault: (1) A burial chamber which is underground or partly so. (2) A metal or concrete container for the casket.
Visitation: An opportunity for family and friends to view the deceased in private before the funeral service.
Visitation Room: A room in a funeral home where the body lies in state before the funeral service so that people may view the deceased and spend time with other survivors.
Wake: (1) A watch kept over the deceased the night before the funeral service. (2) Social activities such as feasting and dancing associated with some funeral traditions.