adytum
Americannoun
plural
adyta-
(in ancient worship) a sacred place that the public was forbidden to enter; an inner shrine.
-
the most sacred or reserved part of any place of worship.
noun
Etymology
Origin of adytum
1665–75; < Latin < Greek ádyton (place) not to be entered, equivalent to a- a- 6 + -dyton, neuter of -dytos, verbid of dýein to enter
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.
Later that night, I peeked into the center’s adytum, a dark and lovely stone chapel whose altar glowed with candlelight.
From New York Times • Dec. 29, 2011
The crypt of adytum, used by priests for unknown rituals, was about 12 by 13 feet, roughly built, its floor stuccoed.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is, therefore, an adytum and occasions shame.
From Human, All Too Human A Book for Free Spirits by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
She had not learned to love him in the vestibule of society, that court of the Gentiles, but in the chamber of torture and the clouded adytum of her own spiritual temple.
From Paul Faber, Surgeon by MacDonald, George
The square itself is perhaps the ground plan of a temple, or adytum of a temple.
From Cleopatra's Needle A History of the London Obelisk, with an Exposition of the Hieroglyphics by King, James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
