ex cathedra

prepositional phrase

With authority based on one's rank or office.

OriginLatin ex cathedrā ← ['la ', →
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. With authority based on one's rank or office.

    Five-star reviews of it [the film Hamnet] could fill one of those posters on Tube platforms. Some come from critics whose views are treated as ex cathedra.

    2026 January 31, Janan Ganesh, “The Hamnet wars”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20
    1 more example

    The best training for style is speech; not monologues, or lectures ex cathedra, like those of the German professors, of whose uninterrupted didacticity their literature bears too many marks

    1826, Julius Hare, Guesses at Truth by Two Brothers

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
authoritativecathedratedexcathedral

Origin

  1. ['la',
  2. Latinex cathedrā
  3. Englishex cathedra

Borrowed from Latin ex cathedrā (“from the (teacher's) chair”).

More words from Latin, ['la

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

ex cathedra. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ex%20cathedra

MLA

“ex cathedra.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ex%20cathedra. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ex cathedra,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ex%20cathedra.

Source: ex cathedra on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.