Definition of "ex cathedra" []

• With the authority derived from one's office or position: the pope speaking ex cathedra; ex cathedra determinations. (adverb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "His fatwas are the nearest equivalent that al-Qaeda has to an ex cathedra statement from the pope."
• "Even those who called the fallen statesman 'Ichabod' could not forget his commanding presence, his lofty tone about affairs of state, his sonorous professions of an ideal, his whole ex cathedra attitude."
• "Ignatian ideas of episcopacy, and unwilling to perceive that they did not avail in the English Establishment, this was an ex cathedra judgment against him."