altar
part of speech
noun (an altar, altars)
meaning for a pupil
1) (church) An altar is a holy table at the front of a church where the priest or minister prepares communion (the bread and wine). tree →
2) (religion, history) An altar is a table or stone where people in old religions offered gifts or sacrifices to God or gods. tree →
3) (idiom) To sacrifice something on the altar of something is to give it up for that thing. tree →
sense in the lessons
In RE and church life the altar is the focus of the church, often with a cloth, candles and a cross; couples stand before the altar at a wedding. In Bible stories Abraham, Noah and Elijah built altars. Phrases: «at the altar», «altar boy», «altar server», «lead someone to the altar» (marry them).
examples
- The priest stood at the altar and blessed the bread and wine. tree →
- The bride and groom walked up to the altar. tree →
- Candles and flowers were placed on the altar. tree →
- In the Bible, Noah built an altar after the flood. tree →
- My brother is an altar server at Sunday Mass. tree →
- The ancient Greeks made offerings at altars to their gods. tree →
- The moujik hid himself behind the altar. tree →
note
Homophone trap: «altar» (holy table) and «alter» (to change) sound the same. Remember: an altAr is a tAble. Countable: altars. Use «an altar» because it begins with a vowel sound.
In the corpora
- The altar or communion table is where the bread and wine are prepared for communion.
- And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.
- And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Adonai-nissi.
- Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon.
- And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he dashed against the altar.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «altar» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.