noun
Refers specifically to a Buddhist place of worship, as opposed to a Shinto shrine (神社).
週末に古い寺を訪ねた。
I visited an old temple over the weekend.
Standard kanji spelling for a Buddhist temple.
神社 is a Shinto shrine, while 寺 is a Buddhist temple. They are distinct religious sites in Japan.
The kanji 寺 originally referred to a government office in ancient China, but in Japanese it came to specifically denote a Buddhist temple. The reading てら is a native Japanese word.