Altarless
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Not having an altar.
"The hypothesis that the cult center was in some such place would explain why it was altarless. It would resemble the cult of Hestia, the sacred Hearth, a cult that was generally housed in public or private buildings and was usually altarless because the sacred fire of the hearth substituted for an altar."
- 2 To which there is no dedicated place of worship.
"The elders silent, glad to hear retold The tales, familiar, of their downthrown gods, Not utterly unloved though altarless."
- 3 Having no place to hold religious services.
"The wandering and altarless homes of this wild people are, as it were, a neutral ground between the lands of the Bible and of the Koran, the traditional customs of which still serve to explain how Jew and Mahometan, members of the same race, while most widely parted in doctrine, may yet maintain the closest union in many important points of the moral and social system."
Example
More examples"The hypothesis that the cult center was in some such place would explain why it was altarless. It would resemble the cult of Hestia, the sacred Hearth, a cult that was generally housed in public or private buildings and was usually altarless because the sacred fire of the hearth substituted for an altar."
Etymology
From altar + -less.
More for "altarless"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.