Tem·plar n.
 1. One of a religious and military order first established at Jerusalem, in the early part of the 12th century, for the protection of pilgrims and of the Holy Sepulcher. These Knights Templars, or Knights of the Temple, were so named because they occupied an apartment of the palace of Bladwin II. in Jerusalem, near the Temple.
 Note: ☞ The order was first limited in numbers, and its members were bound by vows of chastity and poverty. After the conquest of Palestine by the Saracens, the Templars spread over Europe, and, by reason of their reputation for valor and piety, they were enriched by numerous donations of money and lands. The extravagances and vices of the later Templars, however, finally led to the suppression of the order by the Council of Vienne in 1312.
 2. A student of law, so called from having apartments in the Temple at London, the original buildings having belonged to the Knights Templars. See Inner Temple, and Middle Temple, under Temple. [Eng.]
 3. One belonged to a certain order or degree among the Freemasons, called Knights Templars. Also, one of an order among temperance men, styled Good Templars.


 Tem·ple, n.
 1. A place or edifice dedicated to the worship of some deity; as, the temple of Jupiter at Athens, or of Juggernaut in India. “The temple of mighty Mars.”
 2. Jewish Antiq. The edifice erected at Jerusalem for the worship of Jehovah.
    Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.   --John x. 23.
 3. Hence, among Christians, an edifice erected as a place of public worship; a church.
    Can he whose life is a perpetual insult to the authority of God enter with any pleasure a temple consecrated to devotion and sanctified by prayer?   --Buckminster.
 4. Fig.: Any place in which the divine presence specially resides. “The temple of his body.”
    Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?   --1 Cor. iii. 16.
    The groves were God's first temples.   --Bryant.
 5. Mormon Ch. A building dedicated to the administration of ordinances.
 6.  A local organization of Odd Fellows.
 Inner Temple, and Middle Temple, two buildings, or ranges of buildings, occupied by two inns of court in London, on the site of a monastic establishment of the Knights Templars, called the Temple.