Definition of "monstrance" [mon•strance]

• Roman Catholic Church A receptacle in which the host is held. Also called ostensorium. (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.

• "The monstrance is rather new, made in sterling silver by Goudji"
• "Actually it's called a monstrance and it contains a consecrated communion wafer (the big size that only priests get to eat), which by now has magically become the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the form of bread. (there was a time when people chopped each other's heads off over a disagreement about whether it contained any blood) "the abuse took place in the 1970s; the police were informed and acted" - Jack Valero"
• "It seemed to me to be hung up in a kind of monstrance which stood above the Tabernacle."