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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

temple.

A house of worship, especially:

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɛm.pl̩//tɪm.pl̩/US, pin-pen-merger[ˈtɪm.pl̩]US, pin-pen-merger
  1. A house of worship, especially: A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith.

    The temple of Zeus was very large.
  2. A house of worship, especially: Synonym of synagogue, especially a non-Orthodox synagogue.

    Judaism
  3. A house of worship, especially: As opposed to an LDS meetinghouse, a church closed to non-Mormons and necessary for particular rituals.

    Mormonism
  4. A meeting house of the Oddfellows fraternity; its members.

  5. Any place regarded as holding a religious presence.

    figuratively
  6. Any place seen as an important centre for some activity.

    figuratively
    a temple of commerce; a temple of drinking and dining
  7. Anything regarded as important or minutely cared for.

    figuratively
    My body is my temple.
  8. A gesture wherein the forefingers are outstretched and touch pad to pad while the other fingers are clasped together.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

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. Displaced native Old English ealh.

verb/ˈtɛm.pl̩//tɪm.pl̩/US, pin-pen-merger[ˈtɪm.pl̩]US, pin-pen-merger
  1. To build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to; to temple a god

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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. Displaced native Old English ealh.

noun/ˈtɛm.pl̩//tɪm.pl̩/US, pin-pen-merger[ˈtɪm.pl̩]US, pin-pen-merger
  1. The slightly flatter region, on either side of the head of a vertebrate, including a human, behind the eye and forehead, above the zygomatic arch, and forward of the ear.

  2. Either of the sidepieces on a set of spectacles, extending backwards from the hinge toward the ears and, usually, turning down around them.

Where this word comes from

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.

noun/ˈtɛm.pl̩//tɪm.pl̩/US, pin-pen-merger[ˈtɪm.pl̩]US, pin-pen-merger
  1. A contrivance used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely.

Where this word comes from

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

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.