cathedral
See also: cathédral
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kəˈθiː.dɹəl/
Audio (US) (file)
Etymology 1
From Middle English cathedral, chathedral, cathiderall, from Old French [Term?], from Latin cathedrālis, from cathedra + -ālis.
Related terms
Translations
Etymology 2
Ellipsis of cathedral church, from Middle English chirche cathederall, cathedrall chirch, calque of Late Latin ecclēsia cathedrālis (“church having a bishop's seat”), from Latin ecclēsia + cathedrālis. Displaced Old English hēafodċiriċe (literally “main church”).

A large cathedral in Reims, France, with many architectural features traditional to such a structure.
Noun
cathedral (plural cathedrals)
- The principal church of an archbishop's/bishop's archdiocese/diocese which contains an episcopal throne.
- (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 cathedral of commerce
- A large buttressed structure built by certain termites.
Derived terms
- cathedral ceiling
- cathedral city
- cathedral close
- cathedral mound
- cathedral termite
- co-cathedral
- pro-cathedral
- the cathedral and the bazaar
Translations
big church building
|
principal church of a bishop's diocese
|
Etymology 3
Coined by the American political blogger Curtis Guy Yarvin.
Proper noun
the Cathedral
- (US politics, slang) In certain right-wing conspiracy theories, the mainstream system or establishment of society, held to be liberal or leftist and to be working against the interests of the people or nation, which is both.
- 2022 January 14, Rod Dreher, “Neckbeard Militias Are Not My Enemy”, in The American Conservative, archived from the original on 2022-04-15:
- This is why grown-up men and women in the Cathedral (to use the neoreactionary term for the Establishment) actually believe that the MAGA yahoos of January 6 nearly overthrew the US government.
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Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French cathedral, from Latin cathedrālis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kaˌtɛːˈdraːl/, /kaˈtɛːdral/
Descendants
- English: cathedral
References
- “cathēdrāl, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
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