temple

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A building dedicated to religious ceremonies or worship.
2. n. Either of two successive buildings in ancient Jerusalem serving as the primary center for Jewish worship.
3. n. Judaism A synagogue, especially of a Reform congregation.
4. n. Mormon Church A building in which the sacred ordinances are administered.
5. n. Something regarded as having within it a divine presence.
6. n. A building used for meetings by any of several fraternal orders, especially the Knights Templars.
7. n. A building reserved for a highly valued function: the library, a temple of learning.
8. n. Either of two groups of buildings in London, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, that house two of the four Inns of Court and that occupy the site of the medieval Knights Templars establishment.
9. n. The flat region on either side of the forehead.
10. n. Either of the sidepieces of a frame for eyeglasses that extends along the temple and over the ear.
11. n. A device in a loom that keeps the cloth stretched to the correct width during weaving.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An edifice dedicated to the service of a deity or deities, and connected with a system of worship. The most celebrated and architecturally perfect of the ancient temples were those of the Greeks, as that of Zeus at Olympia, that of Athena Parthenos (the Parthenon) at Athens, and that of Apollo at Delphi. The form ordinarily given to classical temples was that of a rectangle, but sometimes the construction was circular, or even of irregular plan. Vitruvius divides temples into eight kinds, according to the arrangement of their columns: namely, temples in antis (see anta), prostyle, amphiprostyle, peripteral, dipteral, pseudodipteral, hypethral, and monopteral. (See these words.) In regard to intercolumniation, they are further distinguished as pycnostyle, systyle, eustyle, diastyle, and areostyle structures, and in regard to the number of columns in front, as tetrastyle, hexastyle, octastyle, and decastyle. (See these words.) Circular temples are known as monopteral, with or without a cella. The temples of ancient Egypt are impressive from their great size and from the number and mass of the pillars ordinarily introduced in their construction; those of India are remarkable for the elaborateness of their plan and elevation, and the lavishness of their sculptured decoration. See also cuts under dipteral, cella, monopteron, octastyle, pantheon, opisthodomos, and prostyle.
2. n. The religious edifice of the Jews in Jerusalem. There were three buildings successively erected in the same spot, and entitled, from the names of their builders, the temple of Solomon, the temple of Zerubbabel, and the temple of Herod. The first was built by Solomon, and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar about 586 b. c. The second was built by the Jews on their return from the captivity (about 537 b. c.), and was pillaged or partially destroyed several times, as by Antiochus Epiphanes, Pompey, and Herod. The third, the largest and most magnificent of the three, was begun by Herod the Great, and was completely destroyed at the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans (a. d. 70). Various attempts have been made toward the restoration of the first and the third of these temples, but scholars are not agreed in respect to architectural details. The ornament and design were in any case of severe and simple character, though rich materials were used. The successive temples all consisted of a combination of buildings, comprising courts separated from and arising one above another, and provided also with chambers for the use of the priests and for educational purposes. The inclosure of Herod's temple covered nineteen acres. It comprised an outer court of the Gentiles, a court of the women, a court of Israel, a court of the priests, and the temple building, with the holy place, and within all—entered only once a year, and only by the high priest—the holy of holies. Within the court of the priests were the great altar and the laver, within the holy place the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, and the table for the showbread, and within the holy of holies the ark of the covenant and the mercy-seat.
3. n. An edifice erected as a place of public worship; a church; in France, specifically, a Protestant church, as distinguished from a Roman Catholic place of worship, which alone is usually spoken of as a church (église).
4. n. Metaphorically, any place in which the divine presence specially resides.
5. n. [capitalized] The name of two semi-monastic establishments of the middle ages, one in London, the other in Paris, occupied by the Knights Templars. The Temple Church, London, is the only part of cither establishment now existing. On the site of the London Temple the two Inns of Court called the Middle Temple and Inner Temple now stand; they have long been occupied by barristers, and are the joint property of the two societies called the Societies of the Inner and of the Middle Temple, which have the right of calling candidates to the degree of barrister. The Temple in Paris was the prison of Louis XVI. and the royal family during their sufferings iu 1792 and 1793.
6. n. An inn of court.
7. To build a temple for; appropriate a temple to; inclose in a temple.
8. n. The region of the head or skull behind the eye and forehead, above and mostly in front of the ear. This area corresponds to the temporal fossa above the zygomatic arch, where the skull is very thin and is covered by the temporal muscle.
9. n. In entomology, the posterior part of the gena, or that immediately beneath the eye.
10. n. One of the bars sometimes added to the ends of spectacle-bows to give them a firmer hold on the head of the wearer. See spectacle, 5.
11. n. An ornament worn at the side of the head or covering the side of the head, mentioned in the fifteenth century as apparently sometimes of needlework, sometimes set with jewels.
12. n. An attachment to a loom for keeping the cloth stretched, while the reed beats the threads into place after each throw of the shuttle. One form is automatic, releasing the cloth and then stretching it after each stroke of the lay.

Wiktionary

1. n. A building for worship.
2. n. often capitalized The Jewish temple of Jerusalem, first built by Solomon.
3. n. Something regarded as holding religious presence.
4. n. Something of importance; something attended to.
5. n. obsolete A body.
6. n. Hands held together with forefingers outstretched and touching pad to pad, with the rest of the fingers clasped.
7. v. transitive To build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to.
8. n. anatomy The slightly flatter region, on either side of the head, back of the eye and forehead, above the zygomatic arch and in front of the ear.
9. n. ophthalmology Either of the sidepieces on a set of spectacles, extending backwards from the hinge toward the ears and, usually, turning down around them.
10. n. weaving A contrivance used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Weaving) A contrivence used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely.
2. n. (Anat.) The space, on either side of the head, back of the eye and forehead, above the zygomatic arch and in front of the ear.
3. n. One of the side bars of a pair of spectacles, jointed to the bows, and passing one on either side of the head to hold the spectacles in place.
4. n. A place or edifice dedicated to the worship of some deity.
5. n. (Jewish Antiq.) The edifice erected at Jerusalem for the worship of Jehovah.
6. n. Hence, among Christians, an edifice erected as a place of public worship; a church.
7. n. Fig.: Any place in which the divine presence specially resides.
8. n. (Mormon Ch.) A building dedicated to the administration of ordinances.
9. n. A local organization of Odd Fellows.
10. v. rare To build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. place of worship consisting of an edifice for the worship of a deity
2. n. the flat area on either side of the forehead
3. n. (Judaism) the place of worship for a Jewish congregation
4. n. an edifice devoted to special or exalted purposes