Definition: Templum is the Latin word from which we get the English "temple". While there is much equivalence, the Latin templum referred not so much to a building type as to an area that was marked out for religious purposes, a sacred place. A templum was the place the auspices could be taken and it was the job of the auspices-takers, the augurs, to mark out the templum. A templum could also be the sacred building with which we are familiar -- marked out as special; however, if it had not been sanctioned by the gods via the augurs, it was not a templum, but an aedes sacra.
The plural of templum is templa.
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