cathedral

UK/kəˈθiːdɹəl/US/kəˈθiːdɹəl/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,297 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: cathedrals

A cathedral is a very large and important church, usually centuries old. Salisbury Cathedral, the cathedral square, a cathedral city.

What makes a building a cathedral is not its size but its role: it is the church containing a bishop's seat, and a diocese has exactly one. That is why a small cathedral can outrank a huge parish church. In Britain, a cathedral city is a city partly because it has one. Note cathedral ceiling, an architectural term for a high vaulted one, and that basilica and minster are different titles again.

Definitions of cathedral

1nouncathedralThe main church of a diocese, containing a bishop's seat.B2
“The cathedral took a hundred and fifty years to build.”

cathedral is a church.

Where it comes from

Greek kathedra meant a chair or throne — kata, down, plus hedra, a seat. A cathedral is the church of the chair, and ex cathedra, meaning spoken with full authority, is the same seat.

Ancient Greek
καθέδρα — chair of a teacher, throne
Latin
cathedrālis
Middle English
cathedral
English, today
cathedral

From Middle English cathedral, chathedral, cathiderall, from Old French, from Latin cathedrālis, from cathedra + ālis, from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (“chair of a teacher, throne”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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cathedral in the wild

The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary ("Our Lady"), is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.
Notre-Dame de Paris
The construction of the cathedral began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely completed by 1260, though it was modified in succeeding centuries.
Notre-Dame de Paris
Lincoln Cathedral, also called Lincoln Minster, and formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, is a Church of England cathedral in Lincoln, England.
Lincoln Cathedral
The cathedral holds one of the four remaining copies of the original Magna Carta, which is now displayed in Lincoln Castle.
Lincoln Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Salisbury, England.
Salisbury Cathedral

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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