A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek  sarx meaning "flesh", and phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos ( ). Since lithos is Greek for stone, lithos sarcophagos means 'flesh eating stone'. The word came to refer to a particular kind of limestone that was thought to decompose the flesh of corpses interred within it.