Definition of "altar" []

• An elevated place or structure before which religious ceremonies may be enacted or upon which sacrifices may be offered. (noun)
• A structure, typically a table, before which the divine offices are recited and upon which the Eucharist is celebrated in Christian churches. (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.

• "These souls appeared "under the altar," that is, _at the foot of the altar_, being the same as that described in chap. 8: 3 -- "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.""
• "In this the term _altar_ is alone made use of; but in the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, published in 1549, the altar or table whereupon the Lord’s Supper was ministered is indifferently called _the altar_, _the Lord’s table_, _God’s board_."
• "The word altar (sometimes spelled oltar) is used in the Old Slavonic and Russian languages to denote the entire space surrounding what we know as the altar, which is included behind the iconostasis, and is the equivalent of the Greek word bema."