mastaba

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A wide stone bench built into the wall of a house, shop etc. in the Middle East.
  2. A rectangular structure with a flat top and slightly sloping sides, built during Ancient Egyptian times above tombs that were situated on flat land. Mastabas were made of wood, mud bricks, stone, or a combination of these materials. Some are solid structures, while others can contain one or more rooms, sometimes decorated with paintings or inscriptions.

Pronunciation

/ˈmæstəbə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mastaba.wav

Word forms

mastaba mastabas mastabah

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic مَصْطَبَة (maṣṭaba).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.