Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A chapter of a medieval military order such as the Knights Templars or of a modern fraternal order.
  • noun A building serving as an administrative or ritual center for such a chapter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Giving precepts; preceptive.
  • noun A subordinate religious house where instruction was given.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Preceptive.
  • noun A religious house of the Knights Templars, subordinate to the temple or principal house of the order in London. See commandery, n., 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A community of the Knights Templar, or the physical buildings or estate of such a community.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From mediaeval Latin praeceptoria, noun use of the feminine of praeceptorius ‘commanding’.

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Examples

  • There was hardly a major centre of civilization where they did not have a preceptory—as, for example, the wide scatter of such place names as Temple Fortune and Temple Bar (London) and Temple Meads (Bristol) in England still shows.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • It is significant that the town of Troyes, from which Chrétien took his surname, was a cabalistic centre and the site of the original Templar preceptory—and it was where the Count of Champagne held his court.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • Poor Isaac was hurried off accordingly, and expelled from the preceptory; all his entreaties, and even his offers, unheard and disregarded.

    Ivanhoe 2004

  • Master of the Temple within a preceptory of his Order? —

    Ivanhoe 2004

  • There was hardly a major centre of civilization where they did not have a preceptory—as, for example, the wide scatter of such place names as Temple Fortune and Temple Bar (London) and Temple Meads (Bristol) in England still shows.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • It is significant that the town of Troyes, from which Chrétien took his surname, was a cabalistic centre and the site of the original Templar preceptory—and it was where the Count of Champagne held his court.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • Proceeding northwards first we may take the road by Templecombe that was once a preceptory of the Knights Templars and now has a station on the main line of the South Western Railway, to Wincanton, a small market town on the Cale ( "Wyndcaleton") at the head of the Vale of

    Wanderings in Wessex An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter Edric Holmes

  • _Torphichen Church_, Linlithgowshire, represents the hospital or preceptory of Torphichen, from 1153 the principal Scottish residence of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.

    Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys Herbert Story

  • Beyond the Carmelite house, nearer Leith, stood the preceptory of St. Anthony, the only house of that order in Scotland.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy 1840-1916 1913

  • Kilmainham Wood, County Meath, a preceptory belonging to the Knights

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913

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