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Definition of "teocalli" [te•o•cal•li]

  • A temple of ancient Mexico, usually built on a pyramidal mound. (noun)
  • The mound on which such a temple was built. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "teocalli" in a sentence
  • "This festival was the most important in Mexico, and took place at the temple or "teocalli," a gigantic, pyramid-like mass of stone, rising in terraces to a height of eighty-six feet above the city, and culminating in a small summit platform upon which the long procession of priests and victims could be seen from all parts of the city."
  • "And when we reach the sea we encounter at Suku, in Java, a teocalli which is absolutely identical with that of Tehuantepec."
  • "Able, ruthless and bloodthirsty, Ahuitzotl doubled the size of the Aztec empire and is once said to have ritually slaughtered twenty thousand prisoners at a reconstructed teocalli, or sacrificial "god house.""