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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cathedral.

Relating to the office of a bishop or an archbishop.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/kəˈθiːdɹəl/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈtiːdrəl/Early, Modern/kəˈθidɹəl/Canada, General-American[kɪ̈ˈθidɹəl]Canada, General-American
  1. Relating to the office of a bishop or an archbishop.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

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

noun/kəˈθiːdɹəl/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈtiːdrəl/Early, Modern/kəˈθidɹəl/Canada, General-American[kɪ̈ˈθidɹəl]Canada, General-American
  1. The principal church serving as the office (and some as place of residence) of an archdiocese's/a diocese's archbishop/bishop which is symbolized by an episcopal throne known as the cathedra.

    The bishop presided over the ceremony from his seat in the cathedral.
  2. A large or important church building.

    broadly · informal
  3. A large, impressive, lofty, and/or important building or place of some other kind.

    figuratively
    a cathedral of commerce
  4. A large buttressed structure built by certain termites.

Where this word comes from

Ellipsis of cathedral church, from Middle English chirche cathederall, cathedrall chirch, calque of Late Latin ecclēsia cathedrālis (“church serving as the bishop's or archbishop's office”), from Latin ecclēsia + cathedrālis. Displaced Old English hēafodċiriċe (literally “main church, head church”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.