cathedra
/kəˈθiːdɹə/
"cathedra" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cathedra” is uncommon English (frequency #99,082 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #99,082
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The chair or throne of a bishop.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cathedra · cathedra · English
cathedra · rank #99,082 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #99,082
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH casuarina
Nearest frequency peer: casuarina (-3 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “cathedra”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- capuchins
capuchins
927 corpus weight
- Carpentaria
Carpentaria
925 corpus weight
- casuarina
casuarina
922 corpus weight
- cathedra
cathedra
919 corpus weight
- cedi
cedi
914 corpus weight
- celerity
celerity
913 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “cathedra” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cathedra |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈθiːdɹə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #99,082 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cathedra” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cathedra is uncommon English at frequency #99,082 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kəˈθiːdɹə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cathedra, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin cathedra (“seat”), from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathédra, “chair of a teacher, throne”), from κατά (katá, “down”) + ἕδρα (hédra, “seat”). Doublet of chair and chaise. The correct English form is cathedra, spelled C-A-T-H-E-D-R-A.
Definition
- 1The chair or throne of a bishop.
- 2The rank of bishop.
- 3The official chair of some position or office, as of a professor.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cathedra (“seat”), from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathédra, “chair of a teacher, throne”), from κατά (katá, “down”) + ἕδρα (hédra, “seat”). Doublet of chair and chaise.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cathedra", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).