Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
podium, dais, lectern, pulpit (nn.)
A podium is a raised platform on which a lecturer or the conductor of an orchestra stands. Don’t confuse a podium with a lectern as people often do; you stand on a podium but behind a lectern—a raised reading desk on which speakers can place books and notes comfortably within their view. A pulpit is a lectern raised usually well above the level of the congregation in a church, often with a short staircase leading up to a railed platform holding preacher and lectern. A dais (stress the first syllable, and rhyme it with day, not dye) is a platform at one end of a hall, for the high table at a banquet, or for speakers or performers.
