temple

n. place of worship, shrine, church, synagogue; flattened region on either side of the forehead

For other uses, see Temple (disambiguation). A temple (from the Latin word templum) is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A ‘’templum’’ constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word “ template,’’ a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out on the ground by the augur. Though a templum, technically speaking, is not a “house of the gods” but a diagram that for the Romans linked the geometries of heaven and earth, it was also indicative of a dwelling place of a god or gods. This tradition, of course, dates back to prehistoric times. For the ancient Egyptians, the word pr could refer not only to a house, but also to a sacred structure since it was believed that the gods resided in houses. The word ‘temple’ (which dates to about the 6th century BCE), despite the specific set of meanings associated with the religion of the ancient Rome, has now become quite widely used to describe a house of worship for any number of religions and is even used for time periods prior to the Romans. Stated differently, temple was once a species of sacred structures; today it is, in the English language, often used as a genus.
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Temple /tem·ple/ the lateral region on either side of the head, above the zygomatic arch. tem·ple n. 1. [more]Temple - Community and Resources

Noun
1. place of worship consisting of an edifice for the worship of a deity
(hypernym) place of worship, house of prayer, house of God, house of worship
(hyponym) joss house
2. the flat area on either side of the forehead; "the veins in his temple throbbed"
(hypernym) feature, lineament
(part-holonym) head, caput
3. an edifice devoted to special or exalted purposes
(hypernym) building, edifice
(hyponym) ziggurat, zikkurat, zikurat
(part-meronym) column, pillar
4. (Judaism) the place of worship for a Jewish congregation
(synonym) synagogue, tabernacle
(hypernym) place of worship, house of prayer, house of God, house of worship
(hyponym) Temple of Jerusalem, Temple of Solomon
(classification) Judaism

n. Temple, family name; Shirley Temple, Shirley Temple Black (born 1928), American child movie star who later became a politician