From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcryptcrypt /krɪpt/ noun [countable] RRCMXa room under a church, used in the past for burying people → vault
Examples from the Corpus
crypt• It was begun in 1084 and built over a seventh century church which now forms a crypt.• Hundreds of parishioners were working with bare hands, shovels and harrows, extending the church by burrowing out a crypt.• The chancel is raised over a crypt below.• Intestinal crypt cells are known to have a higher adenylate cyclase and a lower guanylate cyclase activity than differentiated villous cells.• The east end is triapsidal and the choir is raised high above the superb crypt.• Also in the crypt is the Duomo treasury, a pay-to-enter collection that is closed for a long period at lunch.• Lipkin proposed that upward expansion of the proliferative compartment of the crypts of the large intestine occurs before adenoma development.• The crypt was damp and smelled of the occupation of the past six nights.Origin crypt (1700-1800) Latin crypta, from Greek, from kryptos; → CRYPTO-