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PlainSpell

temple

/tɪm.pl̩/noun, verb

temple is spelled T-E-M-P-L-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Temple, the name). As a noun, temple means “A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of temple is temples.

How many letters and syllables are in temple?

Letters6: T-E-M-P-L-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing28 times per million words; the 3,288th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is temple?

Temple appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Temple, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce temple?

  • /ˈtɛm.pl̩/
  • US /tɪm.pl̩/
  • US [ˈtɪm.pl̩]

Temple has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-temple.ogg, En-us-temple.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with temple?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as temple (/ɪmpl/).

Spelled with the same letters in another order: pelmet.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of temple

  • temples plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • templing participle, present
  • templed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does temple mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith.

    The temple of Zeus was very large.

  2. 2

    Synonym of synagogue, especially a non-Orthodox synagogue.

    How often do you go to temple?

  3. 3

    As opposed to an LDS meetinghouse, a church closed to non-Mormons and necessary for particular rituals.

  4. 4

    A meeting house of the Oddfellows fraternity; its members.

  5. 5

    Any place regarded as holding a religious presence.

  6. 6

    Any place seen as an important centre for some activity.

    a temple of commerce; a temple of drinking and dining

  7. 7

    Anything regarded as important or minutely cared for.

    My body is my temple.

  8. 8

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

  9. 9

    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.

  10. 10

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

  11. 11

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

verb

  1. 1

    To build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to; to temple a god

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Temple in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtemple (place of worship – see also place of worship), tempe (region of skull)
GermanTempel (place of worship – see also place of worship), Schläfe (region of skull)
Portuguesetemplo (place of worship – see also place of worship), têmpora (region of skull), perna (sidepiece of spectacles)
Spanishtemplo (place of worship – see also place of worship), sien, templa (region of skull), pata, terminal, patilla (sidepiece of spectacles)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does temple come 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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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