adytum
Americannoun
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adyta
plural
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(in ancient worship) a sacred place that the public was forbidden to enter; an inner shrine.
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the most sacred or reserved part of any place of worship.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
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
The religious reserve and awe about the entrance into the adytum of their traditions were like those about the entrance into the invisible scenes beyond the veils of time and mortality.
From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by Alger, William Rounseville
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
No gold or silver glitters in the modern adytum, or editor's room, and the tripod from which we distribute our afflatus to the compositors is a wooden three-legged stool, unpainted and uncushioned.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 119, September, 1867 by Various
The magic rod of fanaticism is preserved in the very adyta of human nature; and needs only the re-exciting warmth of a master hand to bud forth afresh and produce the old fruits.
From Biographia Literaria by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
What wonderful things they have heard from the adyta themselves!
From Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews, Together with an Appendix by Taylor, Thomas
The shrines are "Harim," or sacred, having adyta which are kept secret from the prying eyes of men, and, therefore, should be served by eunuchs.
From Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
It is not the ever-victorious and successful that we take into the adyta of our hearts.
From The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 by Morris, Kenneth
And sometimes a dreadful voice issuing from the adyta has destroyed them*.
From Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews, Together with an Appendix by Taylor, Thomas
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
