altarpiece

American

[awl-ter-pees] / ˈɔl tərˌpis /

noun

a painted or carved screen behind or above the altar or communion table in Christian churches; reredos.

altarpiece British

/ ˈɔːltəˌpiːs /

noun

a work of art set above and behind an altar; a reredos

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of altarpiece

First recorded in 1635–45; altar + piece

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Art historians have long believed that the nine panels originally formed an altarpiece at Vyšší Brod.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

Augustinian hermits in della Francesca’s native Borgo San Sepolcro commissioned the altarpiece in 1454, and it hung in its original church for less than 100 years.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 19, 2024

They found the faces were identical to those in a Raphael altarpiece.

From BBC • Jan. 24, 2023

Talavera poblana pottery, with its beautiful fusion of Chinese, Moorish and Indigenous influences, is unrepresented, and an elaborate altarpiece would be a good addition, if tough to find.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 20, 2022

If this were the sort of story that believed in eerie coincidences, we might say that the birth of Lisa Gherardini distracts Leonardo from his altarpiece.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023