Meaning
bier (litter to transport the corpse of a dead person)
- coffin (box in which a person is buried)
- litter, stretcher
- a carriage used to transport a saint's relics
In a sentence
La bara era chiusa durante tutta la cerimonia.
The coffin was closed during the whole ceremony.
Hai visto la bara che hanno portato via?
Did you see the coffin they took away?
Non mettere il gatto sulla bara vuota.
Don't put the cat on the empty stretcher.
Word forms (2)
| Word | Word forms |
|---|---|
| bara | feminine · singular |
| bare | feminine · plural |
Usage notes
- In modern Italian, bara usually means coffin. For a stretcher, barella is far more common.
- Cassa da morto is a more explicit, colloquial alternative; bara is the neutral everyday word in funeral contexts.
- The relic-carriage and regional wagon senses are rare or historical; avoid them unless the context is clearly religious or regional.