cardinal

From Middle French cardinal, from Latin cardinālis (“pertaining to a hinge, hence applied to that on which something turns or depends, important, principal, chief”), from cardin-, cardō (“hinge”) + -ālis, adjectival suffix.

• (non-rhotic)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːd(ɪ)nəl/, [ˈkʰɑːd(ɪ)nəl] ~ [ˈkʰɑːd(ɪ)nl̩]
  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːd(ɪ)nəl/, [ˈkʰɑːd(ɪ)nəl] ~ [ˈkʰɑːd(ɪ)nl̩]

    • Audio:

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• (rhotic)
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑɹd(ɪ)nəl/, [ˈkʰɑɹd(ɪ)nəl] ~ [ˈkʰɑɹd(ɪ)nl̩]

    • Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)dɪnəl
• Hyphenation: car‧din‧al

cardinal (comparative more cardinal, superlative most cardinal)

1. Of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal.

   a cardinal rule

   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye.

   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     the cardinal intersections of the zodiack

   • a. 1631, Michael Drayton, To my noble friend Mr. William Brown, of the evil time:

     Impudence is now a cardinal virtue.

2. (nautical) Of or relating to the cardinal directions (north, south, east and west).

   a cardinal mark

3. Describing a “natural” number used to indicate quantity (e.g., zero, one, two, three), as opposed to an ordinal number indicating relative position.
4. Having a bright red color (from the color of a Catholic cardinal’s cassock).
5. (astrology) Being one of the signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, associated with initiation, creation, and force.

   Coordinate terms: fixed, mutable

cardinal (countable and uncountable, plural cardinals)

2. (Roman Catholicism) One of the officials appointed by the pope in the Roman Catholic Church, ranking only below the pope, equal to the patriarchs, constituting the special college which elects the pope.^[1]

   Hypernym: cleric

   • 1932, Maurice Baring, chapter 16, in Friday's Business:

     His uncle, a Cardinal, engages a Spanish youth of Moorish descent called Diego, an expert singer and player on the virginal, to unlock the secrets of the heart, […] and cure him by the spell of his music.

   • 2025 May 8, Angela Giuffrida and Harriet Sherwood, “White smoke from Sistine Chapel chimney signals election of new pope”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Francis riled conservative cardinals with his compassion for migrants and refugees, openness towards LGBTQ+ Catholics and demands for action on the climate crisis.
     Among the frontrunners before the conclave began were Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state; Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines; Péter Erdő, a traditionalist from Hungary; Robert Sarah, a cardinal from Guinea who criticised Francis’s papacy; and the moderate US cardinal Robert Prevost.

4. Any of various species of New-World passerine songbird in the genus Cardinalis, or in the family Cardinalidae more generally, or of similar appearance and once considered to be related to the former; so called because of their red plumage. (See Wikipedia article for taxonomical information.)

   Hyponyms: northern cardinal, red cardinal

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:

     Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

5. A deep red color, somewhat less vivid than scarlet, the traditional colour of a Catholic cardinal's cassock. (same as cardinal red)

   cardinal:  

   • 1889, Demorests' Monthly Magazine, volume 25, page 65:

     Dark navy-blue, cardinal, golden-brown, old blue, olive, slate-gray, and telegraph-blue are the favorite solid colors seen in heavy beaver cloths […]

   • 1914, ἄν ἀνἁβιλε [án anhabile], “Under the Cardinal Red and Silver Grey”, in Corks and Curls, volume 27, University of Virginia, page 28:

     The cardinal red and silver grey colors were worn with great enthusiasm. In the spring-time, when the entire student body bought their new straw hats, the bands were of cardinal and grey ribbon.

6. (mathematics) Ellipsis of cardinal number, a number indicating quantity, or the size of a set (e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3). (See Cardinal_number.)
   • 1920, Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, page 83:

     This cardinal number is the smallest of the infinite cardinal numbers; it is the one to which Cantor has appropriated the Hebrew aleph with the suffix 0, to distinguish it from larger infinite cardinals. Thus the name of the smallest of infinite cardinals is ₀א.

7. (grammar) Ellipsis of cardinal numeral, a word used to represent a cardinal number.
   • 2005, Frederic M. Wheelock, Wheelock's Latin, 6th ed. revised, p.97:

     The commonest numerals in Latin, as in English, are the "cardinals" […] and the "ordinals" […].

8. Ellipsis of cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), a flowering plant.
   • 1844–1857, Marion D. Sullivan, “Mary Lee: A Romance of the Milton Wood” (sheet music), Boston: Oliver Ditson, page 2, verse 3:

     The sweet-briar rose with perfume good, / And the violet grows in the Milton wood, / The cardinal red—a queen is she, / But the sweetest flower is Mary Lee.

9. Ellipsis of cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi), a freshwater fish.
10. (now historical) A woman's short cloak with a hood, originally made of scarlet cloth.
    • 1763 August 9, The London Chronicle For the Year 1763, volume 14, page 130, column 2:

      […] ; and whilst she was looking over several pieces of each, she took an opportunity of concealing under her cardinal a piece of cotton, and several handkerchiefs, with which she went off undiscovered; […].

    • 1775, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Duenna, I.3:

      She has valuables of mine; besides, my cardinal and veil are in her room.

    • c. 1760, Robert Lloyd, Chit-Chat, an imitation of Theocritus:

      Where's your cardinal! Make haste.

    • 1823, Lionel Thomas Berguer, World, page 115:

      I have made no objection to their wearing the cardinal, though it be a habit of popish etymology, and was, I am afraid, first invented to hide the sluttishness of French dishabille.

    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 274:

      Closely drawing her cardinal round her, she descended into the park, at whose extremity was the little chapel where she intended to make her offering. She soon arrived there, and found the aged priest in attendance.

11. (obsolete) Mulled red wine.
    • 1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford:

      He goes up, and finds the remains of the supper, Tankards full of egg-flip and cardinal, and a party playing at vingt-un.

    • 1951, Herbert Warner Allen, A Contemplation of Wine, page 116:

      A Recipe to make Cardinal, which I attribute to the German governess, raises a problem.

    • 1974, Dennis Walton Dodds, Napoleon's Love Child: A Biography of Count Leon, page 59:

      It was de Rosenberg's practice to separate young bloods from their inheritance, and to facilitate this he served them a vicious drink called 'cardinal', a mulled wine of which the ascertainable ingredients were a pineapple and several mixed vintages.

• (any of family Cardinalidae): cardinalid

• Contrast with ordinal (numbers)
• Card. (abbreviation)

• (woman's cloak; mulled red wine): Hotten's Slang Dictionary (1873)

• Cardinal (Catholicism) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Clarinda

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [kər.diˈnal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [kaɾ.ðiˈnal]

cardinal m or f (masculine and feminine plural cardinals)

1. cardinal

• punt cardinal

Learned borrowing from Latin cardinālis.

• IPA^(key): /kaʁ.di.nal/

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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cardinal (feminine cardinale, masculine plural cardinaux, feminine plural cardinales)

1. important; paramount
2. (mathematics) cardinal

   Coordinate term: ordinal

• point cardinal

cardinal m (plural cardinaux)

1. (religion) cardinal
2. (mathematics) cardinal number

   Coordinate term: ordinal

3. cardinal (bird)

cardinal m (invariable)

1. cardinal (color)

• “cardinal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

cardinal m (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of cardinale

• calandri

cardinal m (plural cardinauls)

1. (Christianity) cardinal.

Learned borrowing from Latin cardinālis. Doublet of cardeal, which was inherited.

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: car‧di‧nal

cardinal m or f (plural cardinais)

1. cardinal (describing a number that indicates quantity)

   Synonym: cardeal

cardinal m (plural cardinais)

1. cardinal (number indicating quantity)

   Synonym: cardeal

2. (typography) hash (the # symbol)

• “cardinal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “cardinal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• кардинал (cardinal) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Borrowed from French cardinal, Latin cardinālis.

• IPA^(key): /kar.diˈnal/
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: car‧di‧nal

cardinal m or n (feminine singular cardinală, masculine plural cardinali, feminine/neuter plural cardinale)

1. principal, essential, fundamental

   Synonyms: capital, crucial, decisiv, esențial, fundamental

• numeral cardinal
• punct cardinal
• roșu cardinal, roșu-cardinal
• virtuți cardinale

cardinal m (plural cardinali)

1. (Roman Catholicism) cardinal
2. cardinal (bird)
3. a variety of grape, cultivated for consumption

• cardinalat
• cardinalist

• “cardinal”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026
• cardinal in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Borrowed from Latin cardinālis.

• IPA^(key): /kaɾdiˈnal/ [kaɾ.ð̞iˈnal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: car‧di‧nal

cardinal m or f (masculine and feminine plural cardinales)

1. cardinal (crucial, pivotal)

   Synonym: fundamental

2. cardinal (describing a number used to indicate quantity)

   Antonym: ordinal

• “cardinal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

From English cardinal, from Middle French cardinal (“cardinal”), from Latin cardinālis (“pertaining to a hinge, hence applied to that on which something turns or depends, important, principal, chief”), from Latin cardō (“hinge”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkardɪnal/
• Rhymes: -ardɪnal

cardinal m (plural cardinaliaid)

1. (Roman Catholicism) cardinal (Roman Catholic official)
2. cardinal (bird)

• cardinal cyffredin