The bone in the skull that covers the sides of the head towards the front. Bordered by the mandibular, maxillary, and parietal bones. The part of the brain that it covers is known as the temporal lobe.

The origin of the name temporal , has nothing to do with time. It comes from the world temple, meaning the temples of the face, not a religious temple. These words, according to the Merrian-Webster Online Dictionary, have seperate etymologies.