cathedra
/kəˈθiːdɹə/
"cathedra" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cathedra” is uncommon English (frequency #99,082 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #99,082
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The chair or throne of a bishop.
| 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) |
Where “cathedra” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
cathedra is uncommon English at frequency #99,082 among 43,570 “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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Using “cathedra”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-T-H-E-D-R-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəˈθiːdɹə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.