Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The principal church of a bishop's diocese, containing the episcopal throne.
  • noun A large, important church.
  • noun Something that resembles a cathedral, as in grandeur or authority.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or containing a bishop's throne.
  • adjective Relating to or issuing from a chair of office or authority; authoritative.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or resembling a cathedral.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Containing a bishop's seat, or used especially for episcopal services; serving or adapted for use as a cathedral: as, a cathedral church.
  • Pertaining to a cathedral; connected with or suggesting a cathedral; characteristic of cathedrals: as, a cathedral service; cathedral music; the cathedral walks of a forest.
  • Emanating from or relating to a chair of office or official position; hence, having or displaying authority; authoritative.
  • noun The principal church in a diocese, which is specially the church of the bishop: so called from the fact that it contains the episcopal chair or cathedra.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The principal church in a diocese, so called because in it the bishop has his official chair (Cathedra) or throne.
  • adjective Pertaining to the head church of a diocese.
  • adjective Emanating from the chair of office, as of a pope or bishop; official; authoritative.
  • adjective Resembling the aisles of a cathedral.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A big church building, central place for some area.
  • noun The principal church of a bishop's diocese which contains an episcopal throne.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or containing or issuing from a bishop's office or throne
  • noun the principal Christian church building of a bishop's diocese
  • noun any large and important church

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for cathedral church, from Middle English cathedral, of a diocese, from Old French, from Medieval Latin cathedrālis, of a bishop's see, from Latin cathedra, chair; see cathedra.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From cathedral church, from Late Latin ecclēsia cathedrālis ("church having a bishop's seat"), from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathedra, "chair of a teacher, throne"), from κατά (kata, "down") + ἕδρα (hedra, "seat").

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