altar

Inherited from Middle English auter, inherited from Old English altar and borrowed from Old French auter, both derived from Latin altāre,^[1] probably related to adolere (“burn”); thus "burning place", influenced by altus (“high”). Displaced native Middle English wēved.

• enPR: ôl′tər^[1]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒl.tə/, /ˈɔːl.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔl.tɚ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑl.tɚ/

  Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒltə(ɹ), -ɔːltə(ɹ)
• Homophone: alter
• Hyphenation: al‧tar^[1]

altar (plural altars)

1. A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites.
   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 9–14:

     To hawke, or els to hunt
     From the auter to the funt,
     Wyth cry unreverent,
     Before the sacrament,
     Wythin the holy church bowndis,
     That of our fayth the grownd is.

2. (informal) A raised area around an altar in a church; the sanctuary.
3. (figurative) Any (real or notional) place where something is worshipped or sacrificed to.
   • 2000, Alain Renaut, M. B. De Bevoise, “Hegel and Nietzsche”, in Era of the Individual: A Contribution to a History of Subjectivity‎^[1], Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 129, lines 19–25:

     […] now marking the end of ascetic rationalism, the monadology no longer implied a sacrifice of individuality on the altar of rationality.

• → Maori: āta

• “altar”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• artal, ratal, talar

• IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altár m

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

• “altar”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006
• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[2], 1980
• Newmark, L. (1999) “altar”, in Oxford Albanian-English Dictionary‎^[3]

Inherited from Latin altāre.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [əlˈta]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [alˈtaɾ]^[1]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -a(ɾ)
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar m (plural altars)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

• “altar”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “altar” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “altar” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Spanish altar.

• IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/, [al̪ˈt̪aɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altár

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

From Middle High German alter, altære, from Old High German altāri, from Latin altāre. Cognate with German Altar.

altar m (uncountable)

1. (Sette Comuni) altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

• “altar” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

Borrowed from Latin altāre.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑltɑr/, [ˈɑltɑr]

• Rhymes: -ɑltɑr
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar (genitive altari, partitive altarit)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

   Synonym: altarilaud

Declension of altar (ÕS type 2/õpik, no gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		altar	altarid
accusative	nom.
	gen.	altari
genitive			altarite
partitive		altarit	altareid
illative		altarisse	altaritesse altareisse
inessive		altaris	altarites altareis
elative		altarist	altaritest altareist
allative		altarile	altaritele altareile
adessive		altaril	altaritel altareil
ablative		altarilt	altaritelt altareilt
translative		altariks	altariteks altareiks
terminative		altarini	altariteni
essive		altarina	altaritena
abessive		altarita	altariteta
comitative		altariga	altaritega

• “altar”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• “altar”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN
• altar in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈal̥.taɹ/
• Rhymes: -al̥taɹ
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar n (genitive singular altars, plural altar)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

From Old Galician-Portuguese altar (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin altāre.

• IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/ [ɑl̪ˈt̪aɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

   Synonym: ara

   • 1370, Ramón Lorenzo, editor, Crónica troiana, A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 660:

     […] et talloulle a cabeça dentro ẽno tẽplo, ante o altar.

     […] and he cut his head inside, in the temple, before the altar.

• altar maior

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “altar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “altar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “altar”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Borrowed from Dutch altaar, from Latin altāre.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈaltar/ [ˈal.t̪ar]
• Rhymes: -altar
• Syllabification: al‧tar

altar (plural altar-altar)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)
2. mazbah (sacrificial place)
3. (nautical term) a ladder on a ship's dock used to get up and down to and from the dock floor

• “altar” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• IPA^(key): [ˈal̪ˠ.t̪ˠəɾˠ]

altar

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

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈaɫ.tar]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈal̪.t̪ar]
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar n (genitive altāris); third declension

1. alternative form of altāre (“altar”) (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

In pre-Classical and Classical Latin, this noun only occurs in the plural as a plurale tantum.

Third-declension noun (neuter, pure i-stem).

See altāre.

• “altar”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “altar”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[4]

• IPA^(key): /alˈtɑːr/ (Milanese)
• Rhymes: -ɑːr
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar m (plural altar)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

altar m (plural altaryn)

1. (religion) altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

altar n

1. form removed by a 1984 spelling decision; superseded by alter: altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

From late Old Norse altari, from Old Saxon altari, itself taken from Latin altāre (“altar”).

• alter
• altari (dialectal)

altar n (definite singular altaret, indefinite plural altar, definite plural altara)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

altar m

1. indefinite plural of alt

• “altar” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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

• IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)
   • a. 1284, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Códice de los músicos, 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.

• Galician: altar
• Portuguese: altar

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

altar n

1. age

• gialtar

• Middle High German: alter
  • Alemannic German: Altar
  • Bavarian: Ålter, Oiter
  • German: Alter, Alda, Alla
    • → Luxembourgish: Alter
  • Yiddish: אַלטער (alter)

From Old Galician-Portuguese altar, from Latin altāre (“altar for burnt offerings”). Cf. also Portuguese outeiro.

• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

• altariu — dated, rare

Inherited from Latin altārium or altār, with the plural deriving from altāria. Compare oltar, a rare and dated variant which derives from the same source via a Slavic intermediary.

• IPA^(key): /alˈtar/
• Rhymes: -ar
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar n (plural altare)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

   Synonym: pristol

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

   Synonym: sanctuar

• “altar”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

Inherited from Old Spanish altar (attested as far back as the Cantar de Mio Cid^[1]), from Latin altāre. See also otero.

• IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/ [al̪ˈt̪aɾ]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: al‧tar

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)
2. stone that separates the firebox from the hearth in reverberatory furnaces

• Chavacano: altar

• “altar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

• antal, artal — obsolete

Borrowed from Spanish altar, from Old Spanish altar, from Latin altāre. Doublet of alta.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔalˈtaɾ/ [ʔɐlˈt̪aɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: al‧tar

altár (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜎ᜔ᜆᜇ᜔)

1. altar (flat-topped structure used for religious rites)

   Synonyms: dalanginan, dambana, alta

• “altar”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
• San Buena Ventura, Fr. Pedro de (1613) Juan de Silva, editor, Vocabulario de lengua tagala: El romance castellano puesto primero‎^[5], La Noble Villa de Pila, page 47: “Altar) Altar (pc) C. de Igleſia v de otro lugar”
• Cuadrado Muñiz, Adolfo (1972) Hispanismos en el tagalo: diccionario de vocablos de origen español vigentes en esta lengua filipina, Madrid: Oficina de Educación Iberoamericana, page 27