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# cathedral

«cathedral» in Mova's school dictionary: **a very large and important Christian church, the main…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a cathedral, cathedrals)

### meaning for a pupil

A cathedral is a very large and important Christian church, the main church of an area led by a bishop. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In history and religious education lessons pupils learn that cathedrals took many years to build, with tall towers, spires and stained-glass windows. In geography a city often grows around its cathedral. Famous ones: St Paul's, Canterbury, Notre-Dame, St Patrick's. In maths, their windows and arches are used to explore symmetry.

### examples

- We visited the cathedral on our school trip. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#x1)
- The cathedral has a tall stone spire. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#x2)
- Light came through the cathedral's stained-glass windows. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#x3)
- The bishop led a service in the cathedral. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#x4)
- It took workers many years to build the cathedral. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#x5)
- The cathedral bells rang across the city. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#x6)
- He passed by the cathedral tower, where the white marble angels were sculptured. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/#x7)

### note

Not every big church is a cathedral; it must be the seat of a bishop. In the UK a town with a cathedral was traditionally called a city. Spelling: cath-e-dral.

### In the corpora

- [Cathedrals were huge and built by hand, and money came in slowly, so many took a hundred years or more to finish.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/21-castles-knights-and-cathedrals/16/)
- [Lincoln Cathedral in England was probably the tallest building in the world for about 200 years, until its spire fell in 1548.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/21-castles-knights-and-cathedrals/17/)
- [Many countries are young: Giulia's nonna, Italian for grandma, jokes that Italy is younger than her favourite cathedral.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/11/)
- [Galileo noticed this watching a swinging lamp in a cathedral, timing it with his pulse.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/10-swings-and-pendulums/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «cathedral» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cathedral/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.