cathedral
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
The principal church serving as the office of an archdiocese's/a diocese's archbishop/bishop which is symbolized by an episcopal throne known as the cathedra.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhtheedruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kəˈθidɹəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
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 principal Christian church building of a bishop's diocese
loosely or informally
Any large and important church
loosely or informally
A large or important church building.
figurative
A large, impressive, lofty, and/or important building or place of some other kind.
A large buttressed structure built by certain termites.
adjective
Relating to or containing or issuing from a bishop's office or throne
Relating to the office of a bishop or an archbishop.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: 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.
Used this way, cathedral is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use cathedral
- “The old stone cathedral stood majestically in the center of the city.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A Gothic cathedral in northern France.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.