The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lectern \Lec"tern\ (l[e^]k"t[u^]rn), n. [Written also lecturn and lettern.] [LL. lectrinum, fr. lectrum; cf. L. legere, lectum, to read.]
A choir desk, or reading desk, in some churches, from which the lections, or Scripture lessons, are chanted or read.
--Fairholt.Hence: A reading desk, usually in the form of a stand with a slanted top that holds books or lecture notes at a height convenient for reading by a speaker who is standing. A modern lectern may be of adjustable height, and be fitted with a light to illuminate the material on the desk, and sometimes a microphone or other electrical equipment for use of a speaker.
Wiktionary
n. (misspelling of lectern English)
Usage examples of "lecturn".
No altar, no decorations, only a lecturn and four chairs on a raised platform at the front, one occupied by a lay priest in a tailored white suit.
They stood by their chairs as the man with them went to the lecturn and opened a little red book there.
Yesugen went to the lecturn and began to speak, but Yesui barely heard it.
Yesugen had turned away from the lecturn, and was holding out a hand to her.
Yesui went to the lecturn, breathing deeply to calm her nerves, but the compulsion remained, growing each second.
Mother gripped the lecturn with her left hand, turned to point at Yesui with her right.
The catalog rested on a lecturn carved with owls peeking out from oak trees.
He paused, surveying the audience contemptuously for a moment before he leaped up to the lecturn and balanced on one side of it.
Sciss, who until now had been standing behind his armchair as if it were a lecturn, took a few steps in the direction of the door, turned unexpectedly, inclined his head, and continued, looking into the room at the seated men.
Fleming gripped the side of the lecturn and leaned forward, anger alive in his voice.
Fleming left the lecturn to scattered applause, much of the audience already divided THE DESCENT OF ANANSI 29 into percolating knots of controversy I Thomas turned to his wife, unhooking fingers and toes from the net.
There were two priests near the altar, and a woman at the lecturn reading aloud earnestly from the Bible.