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Added 6 October 2026

cardinal

/ˈkɑːd(ɪ)nəl/ adjective

In Latin: cardinālis Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about cardinal at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal.
a cardinal rule
Of or relating to the cardinal directions (north, south, east and west).
a cardinal mark
Used to describe quantity (e.g., zero, one, two, three), as opposed to an ordinal number indicating relative position. (See Cardinal_number.)

noun

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

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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