0 a very large, usually stone, building for Christian worship. It is the largest and most important church of a diocese:
Salisbury Cathedral
1 a large and important church, esp. one that is the center of a large area
The old city around the cathedral is the most colourful part of town.
A guide conducts tours of the cathedral every afternoon at 2.00.
The new cathedral was completed and consecrated in 1962.
Not much less challenging was accommodating within this structure the cathedrals and the wide variety of clergy holding offices in them.
They likewise acquired distinctively civic overtones as cathedral clerics employed them in honour of local patron saints.
There is illuminating discussion of the cathedral cemetery (illustrated in both modern and sixteenthcentury plans), and the possible positioning of burials in it.