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.

      1 more example

      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.

      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

   2. JudaismSynonym of synagogue, especially a non-Orthodox synagogue.

      How often do you go to temple?

      Synonyms: synagogue

   3. MormonismAs 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. figurativelyAny place regarded as holding a religious presence.
4. figurativelyAny place seen as an important centre for some activity.

   a temple of commerce; a temple of drinking and dining

5. figurativelyAnything regarded as important or minutely cared for.

   My body is my temple.

   1 more example

   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.

   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

6. figurativelyA gesture wherein the forefingers are outstretched and touch pad to pad while the other fingers are clasped together.

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

   2010, James LePore, A World I Never Made, page 251

present singular third person temples · participle present templing · participle past templed · past templed

1. transitiveTo build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to; to temple a god

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

   1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political

plural temples

1. anatomyThe 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.

   A few days after the electrodes were implanted, Bennett welcomed visitors into his hospital room. His head is wrapped in bandages. A thick braid of wires hangs from his left temple.

   2013 December 9, Amy Standen, “Epilepsy Patients Help Decode The Brain's Hidden Signals”, in NPR

   2 more examples

   Then Iael Hebers wife, tooke a naile of the tent, and tooke an hammer in her hand, and went softly vnto him, and smote the naile into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: (for he was fast asleepe, and weary;) so he died.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 4:21

   Biblical criteria of sexual seductiveness include a white skin, black hair, or henna-dyed, scarlet lips, a prominent nose, rosy temples, long straight neck, firm breasts, round thighs, an erect posture.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 219

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

plural temples

1. businessA contrivance used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely.

   Synonyms: template

1. A male given name from Latin.

   Temple Dickson, D-Sweetwater, in a broad attack against cigarette companies, said the bill was needed so that taxpayers will not be paying for diseases caused by cigarettes.

   1992 July 11, “Sweetwater senator wants tobacco industry to pay”, in The Victoria Advocate

   4 more examples

   The two known human AIDS viruses are evolving at a rapid rate equivalent to that of influenza viruses, said Dr. Temple F. Smith of Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, an author of a new report on the AIDS virus family tree.

   1988 June 9, Harold M. Schmeck Jr., “Family Tree of AIDS Viruses Is Viewed as 37 to 80 Years Old”, in The New York Times

   Bud Abernathy was 10 years old and Temple Abernathy 6 when the brothers from Cross Roads, Okla., decided they wanted to take a trip to New York — by themselves, on horseback — to see ex-President Theodore Roosevelt.

   2002 March, Tom Fleming, “A Wild Ride”, in Boys' Life

   With evident pleasure Temple Hauptfleisch presents the variety of theatrical forms to be found in the 'new' South Africa: […] He distinguishes eight categories of forms on the theatrical menu in South Africa: […]

   2003, Joost Smiers, Arts Under Pressure: Protecting Cultural Diversity in the Age of Globalisation, Zed Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 94

   In the 1840s, astronomer Temple Chevallier (1794-1873) experimented with placing a small metal disc in the focus of his telescope's eyepiece to produce an artificial eclipse that would make the protuberances visible on any clear day.

   2011, Barbara J. Becker, Unravelling Starlight: William and Margaret Huggins and the Rise of the New Astronomy, Cambridge University Press, published 2011, →ISBN, page 91

2. A female given name from Latin.

   […] including the 1925 silent film Peacock Feathers, based on the bestselling novel of the same name written by Temple Bailey (1885-1953).

   2007, Kathryn Morris, Debora Richey, & Cathy Thomas, Fullerton, Arcadia Publishing (2007), page 6 (image caption)

   2 more examples

   Temple Hayes, 35, a minister with the Church of Religious Science of West Palm Beach, told the survivors that support and a positive attitude are important in fighting any type of disease. "In today's times, it is essential that people come together and support each other with like-minded experiences," she said.

   1994, Tracy Bertman, "Cancer survivors celebrate life, dreams, The News, 6 June 1994

   Dr. Temple Grandin, a university professor who has autism, has plenty of expertise and personal experience with autism, which gives her a unique perspective on the information available.

   2006, Stephen M. Shore, Linda G. Rastelli, Understanding Autism for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Inc., published 2006, →ISBN, page 346

3. A surname.

   1 more example

   Wildlife biologist Stanley Temple hypothesised that perhaps the dodo tree was dependent on its seeds passing through the digestive system of dodos in order to properly germinate and that the handful of individuals in the 1970s were the last remaining trees from seeds that passed through a dodo in the 1690s-1700s when they went extinct.

   2017 May 3, Mark Carnall, “Finding zombies, ghosts and Elvis in the fossil record”, in The Guardian

4. Places in the United Kingdom:
   1. A suburb of Glasgow, Scotland (OS grid ref NS5469).
   2. A village in Midlothian council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NT3158).
   3. A small village in Bisham parish, Windsor and Maidenhead borough, Berkshire, England (OS grid ref SU8484).
   4. A small village in Blisland parish, on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SX1473).
5. Places in the United States:
   1. A city in Carroll County and Haralson County, Georgia.
   2. An unincorporated community in Crawford County, Indiana.
   3. A town in Franklin County, Maine.
   4. An unincorporated community in Clare County, Michigan.
   5. A town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.
   6. A ghost town in Williams County, North Dakota.
   7. A town in Cotton County, Oklahoma.
   8. A census-designated place in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
   9. A city in Bell County, Texas, named after Bernard Moore Temple of the Santa Fe Railway.
6. A neighbourhood of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

1. JudaismhistoricalChristianityAny of the former chief temples to YHWH in Jerusalem, particularly Solomon's Temple.
2. UKlawEither of two of the Inns of Court in London (the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple), built on a site once occupied by the Knights Templar.

   Up to his five-and-twentieth year he had been industrious and steady, had kept his terms in the Temple, and studied late and early.

   1860, Ellen Wood, East Lynne, Penguin, published 2005, page 5