temple

• enPR: tĕm'p(ə)l, IPA^(key): /ˈtɛmp(ə)l/

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• Rhymes: -ɛmpəl

The Temple of Isis from Philae (Egypt)

Maison Carrée from Nîmes (France), one of the best preserved Roman temples to survive in the territory of the former Roman Empire

Ryusenji temple from Osaka (Japan)

From Middle English temple, from Old English templ, tempel, borrowed from Latin templum (“shrine, temple, area for auspices”). Compare Old High German tempal (“temple”), also a borrowing from the Latin.

temple (plural temples)

1. A house of worship, especially:
   1. A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith.

      The temple of Zeus was very large.

      • 1974, Donald R. DeGlopper, “Religion and Ritual in Lukang”, in Arthur P. Wolf, editor, Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Studies in Chinese Society)‎, Stanford: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 46:

        As of October 1968 Lukang, which had a resident population of between 27,000 and 28,000 people, had 39 temples. It is my impression that Lukang has more temples than do most Taiwanese communities of equivalent size. By temple I mean a structure that houses an image, altar, and incense pot, and is freely accessible to the general public. In speaking of the 39 temples of Lukang, I am omitting the numerous small shrines to the unknown dead (Yu Ying Kung), buildings dedicated to ancestors rather than deities (two), Christian churches (four), incense-burner associations that keep their incense pot or image in private homes, and private shrines such as the domestic altars of tang-ki (spirit mediums) or the shrine of the now defunct Ch'üan-chou guild, found in the back room of a drugstore endowed with the guild property.[...]Lukang, seen in comparative perspective, has a lot of temples.

   2. (Judaism) Synonym of synagogue, especially a non-Orthodox synagogue.

      How often do you go to temple?

   3. (Mormonism) As opposed to an LDS meetinghouse, a church closed to non-Mormons and necessary for particular rituals.
2. A meeting house of the Oddfellows fraternity; its members.
3. (figurative) Any place regarded as holding a religious presence.
4. (figurative) Any place seen as an important centre for some activity.

   a temple of commerce; a temple of drinking and dining

5. (figurative) Anything regarded as important or minutely cared for.

   My body is my temple.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], lines 11–14:

     For nature crescent does not grow alone
     In thews and bulks, but as this temple waxes,
     The inward service of the mind and soul
     Grows wide withal.

6. (figurative) A gesture wherein the forefingers are outstretched and touch pad to pad while the other fingers are clasped together.
   • 2010, James LePore, A World I Never Made, page 251:

     Again Abdullah listened intently, his eyes closed, his ten fingers forming a temple of his hands in front of him.

• This word is rarely used in English to refer to a Christian house of worship, especially in Western Christianity.

• (house of worship): house of worship, place of worship

• (house of worship): church (Christian, usually distinguished); mosque (Muslim, usually distinguished); synagogue (Jewish); gurudwara, gurdwara (Sikh); athenaeum (dedicated to Athena), Mithraeum (dedicated to Mithras); Iseum, Iseion (dedicated to Isis); serapeum (dedicated to Serapis); hecatompedon (a temple of 100 feet length or square); hof (Germanic pagan); see also Thesaurus:temple

• (house of worship): shrine (smaller)
• (exclusive Mormon house of worship): meeting house, church (non-exclusive)

• Templar

temple (third-person singular simple present temples, present participle templing, simple past and past participle templed)

1. (transitive) To build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to; to temple a god
   • 1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political:

     though the Heathen (in many places) Templed and adored this drunken God

Picture dictionary
temple skull brain eye lip nose mouth chin jaw ear temple neck
Click on labels in the image.

Temple in anatomy

From Middle English temple, from Old French temple, from Vulgar Latin *temp(u)la, from Latin tempora (“the temples”), plural of tempus (“temple, head, face”). See temporal bone.

temple (plural temples)

1. (anatomy) The slightly flatter region, on either side of the human head, behind the eye and forehead, above the zygomatic arch, and forward of the ear.
2. (ophthalmology) Either of the sidepieces on a set of spectacles, extending backwards from the hinge toward the ears and, usually, turning down around them.

• temporal

Borrowed from Latin templum (“a small timber, a purlin”); compare templet and template.

temple (plural temples)

1. (weaving) A contrivance used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely.

• “temple”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “temple”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• pelmet

From Latin templum.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtem.plə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈtem.ple]

temple m (plural temples)

1. temple (building)

• templer

• “temple” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “temple”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “temple” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “temple” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Old French temple, borrowed from Latin templum, from Proto-Indo-European *t(e)mp-lo-s, from the root *temp- (“to stretch, string”).

• IPA^(key): /tɑ̃pl/

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temple m (plural temples)

1. temple (for worship)
2. hall

   Le Temple de la renommée du hockey.

   The Hockey Hall of Fame.

• temple de la renommée
• templier

• “temple”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Vulgar Latin *temp(u)la, from Latin tempora, plural of tempus.

temple oblique singular, m (oblique plural temples, nominative singular temples, nominative plural temple)

1. (anatomy) temple

• French: tempe
• → Middle English: temple
  • English: temple

Borrowed from Latin templum.

temple oblique singular, m (oblique plural temples, nominative singular temples, nominative plural temple)

1. temple (building where religious services take place)

• French: temple
• → Old Spanish: temple

From Old Occitan temple or Old French temple. Compare the inherited tiemplo and the learned form templo, all ultimately from Latin templum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtemple/

temple m (plural temples)

1. temple
   • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 53v:

     embiol ael aſenachaerib toda la plata q̃ pudo trobar en la del criador. e el teſoro de los reẏſ. eſtoz cranto ezechias las puertas del temple e todo quanto pudo aù embiolo al reẏ de ſiria esto peſo al criador

     He sent Sennacherib all the silver he could find in the [house] of the Creator and the treasury of the kings. Then Hezekiah broke the doors of the temple and all that there was he sent to the king of Assyria. This weighed upon the Creator.

• templo m, tiemplo m

temple

1. plural of templu

• IPA^(key): /ˈtemple/ [ˈt̪ẽm.ple]
• Rhymes: -emple
• Syllabification: tem‧ple

Deverbal from templar.

temple m (plural temples)

1. mood; humour (of a person)
   • 1897, Benito Pérez Galdós, Misericordia:

     Halló a Doña Paca de mal temple, porque se había parecido en la casa, muy de mañana, un dependiente de la tienda, y habíala insultado […]

     [She] found Doña Paca in a bad mood, because very early in the morning a shopkeeper showed up at the house, and had insulted her […]

2. mettle; courage; spunk
3. tempering
4. temperature
5. (music) tuning
6. (bullfighting) a move of the cape before a charge

temple

1. inflection of templar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “temple”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014