altar

See also Altar

English

Etymology

From Latin altare (“altar”), probably related to adolere (“burn”); thus "burning place", influenced by a false connection with altus (“high”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːltə(r)
• Homophone: alter

Noun

altar (plural altars)

1. A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites.

Derived terms

• altar boy
• altar poem
• high altar

Translations

flat-topped structure used for religious rites

• Arabic: مذبح (ar) (mádhbaH) m, هيكل (ar) (háykal) m
• Belarusian: алтар (be) (altár) m
• Bulgarian: олтар (bg) (óltar) m
• Catalan: altar (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 祭壇 (cmn), 祭坛 (cmn) (jìtán), 聖壇 (cmn), 圣坛 (cmn) (shèngtán)

• Czech: oltář (cs) m
• Dalmatian: altur
• Danish: alter (da)
• Dutch: altaar (nl) n
• Esperanto: altaro (eo) n
• Ewe: vɔsamlekpui n
• Faroese: altar (fo) n
• Finnish: alttari (fi)
• French: autel (fr)
• German: Altar (de) m
• Greek: βωμός (el) (vomós) m
• Hungarian: oltár (hu)
• Icelandic: altari (is) n
• Italian: altare (it) m
• Japanese: 祭壇 (ja) (さいだん, saidan)
• Jèrriais: autel m

• Korean: 제단 (ko) (jedan) (祭壇 (ko))
• Latin: altare (la) n, ara (la)
• Luxembourgish: Altor (lb)
• Macedonian: олтар (mk) (óltar) m, жртвеник (mk) (ž'rtvenik) m
• Norwegian: alter (no), altar (no)
• Old Norse: altari
• Old Saxon: altari
• Persian: محراب (fa) (mehrâb), مذبح (fa) (mazbah)
• Polish: ołtarz (pl) m
• Portuguese: altar (pt)
• Romanian: altar (ro)
• Russian: алтарь (ru) (altár') m, жертвенник (ru) (žértvennik) m
• Scottish Gaelic: altair (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: жртвеник (sh) m, олтар (sh) m

  Roman: žrtvenik (sh) m, oltar (sh) m

• Slovak: oltár (sk) m
• Slovene: oltar (sl) m
• Spanish: altar (es) m
• Swedish: altare (sv)
• Turkish: sunak (tr), mihrap (tr)
• Ukrainian: вівтар (uk) (vivtár) m

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin altāre.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a(ɾ)

Noun

altar m (plural altars)

1. altar

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Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse altari, from Old Saxon altari, from Latin altare (“altar”), cognates with Danish alter (“altar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈal̥.taɹ/, X-SAMPA: /"al_0.tar\/

Noun

altar n (genitive singular altars, plural altar)

1. altar

Declension

n3	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	altar	altarið	altar	altarini
Accusative	altar	altarið	altar	altarini
Dative	altari	altarinum	altarum	altarunum
Genitive	altars	altarsins	altara	altaranna

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Galician

Noun

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar

Synonyms

• ara

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Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ˈal̪ˠt̪ˠəɾˠ]

Verb

altar

1. present indicative autonomous of alt
2. imperative autonomous of alt
3. present subjunctive autonomous of alt

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Eclipsis	with h-prothesis	with t-prothesis
altar	n-altar	haltar	t-altar
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

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Latin

Etymology

Found mainly in post-Classical Latin. In Classical Latin, used mostly in plural form altaria. Ultimately from adolere and influenced by altus. See also other forms altāre and altārium.

Noun

altar (genitive altaris); n, third declension

1. altar (for burnt offerings)

Inflection

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	altar	altaria
genitive	altaris	altarium
dative	altarī	altaribus
accusative	altar	altaria
ablative	altarī	altaribus
vocative	altar	altaria

Descendants

• Romanian: altar
• Russian: алта́рь (altár') m

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Manx

Noun

altar m (plural altaryn)

1. (religion) altar

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Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *aldrą, whence also Old English ealdor, Old Norse aldr.

Noun

altar n

1. age

Descendants

• German: Alter

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Old Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin altāre (“altar for burnt offerings”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /al.ˈtaɾ/

Noun

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat structure used for religious rites)
   • 13th century, attributed to Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, E codex, cantiga 7 (facsimile):

     Eſta e como ſanta Maria liurou a Abadeſſa prenne q̇ adormecera anto ſeu Altar chorando.

     This one is about how Holy Mary acquitted the pregnant abbess who had fallen asleep crying in front of her altar.

Descendants

• Galician: altar
• Portuguese: altar

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Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Portuguese altar, from Latin altāre (“altar for burnt offerings”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA: /ɐɫ.ˈtaɾ/
• (Paulista) IPA: /aw.ˈtaɾ/, /aw.ˈtaɹ/
• (South Brazil) IPA: /aw.ˈtaɾ/, /aw.ˈtaɻ/

Noun

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat structure used for religious rites)

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Romanian

Alternative forms

• altariu (dated, rare)

Etymology

From Latin altārium or altār. Cf. also oltar, a rare and dated variant from a Slavic intermediary.

Noun

altar n (plural altare)

1. altar
2. communion table
3. chancel
4. shrine, sanctuary

Synonyms

• (altar): pristol
• (sanctuary): sanctuar

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin altāre.

Noun

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar
2. Stone that separates the firebox from the hearth in reverberatory furnaces