MEANING
A raised shelf or decorative structure behind or above an altar, often holding an altarpiece or sacred objects.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- carved retable
- altar retable
On the page
The candlelight revealed figures carved into the retable.
A missing panel left a dark gap in the painted retable.
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- retable
Usage notes
Primary category: gothic. Forms: Singular retable; plural retables. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.
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