cardinal
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɑː.dɪ.nəl/
ipa: /ˈkɑːd.nəl/
ipa: /ˈkɑɹdɪnəl/
ipa: /ˈkɑɹdnəl/
Forms: form: cardinals
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1932, Maurice Baring, chapter 16, in Friday's Business:
text: 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.
ref: 2025 May 8, Angela Giuffrida and Harriet Sherwood, “White smoke from Sistine Chapel chimney signals election of new pope”, in The Guardian:
topics: Catholicism
Christianity
Roman-Catholicism
hypernyms: cleric
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:
glosses: 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.)
examples: text: Dark navy-blue, cardinal, golden-brown, old blue, olive, slate-gray, and telegraph-blue are the favorite solid colors seen in heavy beaver cloths […]
ref: 1889, Demorests' Monthly Magazine, volume 25, page 65:
text: 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.
ref: 1914, ἄν ἀνἁβιλε, “Under the Cardinal Red and Silver Grey”, in Corks and Curls, volume 27, University of Virginia, page 28:
glosses: A deep red color, somewhat less vivid than scarlet, the traditional colour of a Catholic cardinal's cassock. (same as cardinal red)
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1920, Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, page 83:
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: Ellipsis of cardinal number, a number indicating quantity, or the size of a set (e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3). (See Cardinal_number.)
examples: text: The commonest numerals in Latin, as in English, are the "cardinals" […] and the "ordinals" […].
ref: 2005, Frederic M. Wheelock, Wheelock's Latin, 6th ed. revised, p.97
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: Ellipsis of cardinal numeral, a word used to represent a cardinal number.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1844–1857, Marion D. Sullivan, “Mary Lee: A Romance of the Milton Wood” (sheet music), Boston: Oliver Ditson, page 2, verse 3:
glosses: Ellipsis of cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), a flowering plant.
glosses: Ellipsis of cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi), a freshwater fish.
examples: text: […]; 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;[…].
ref: 1763 August 9, The London Chronicle For the Year 1763, volume 14, page 130, column 2:
text: She has valuables of mine; besides, my cardinal and veil are in her room.
ref: 1775, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Duenna, I.3:
text: Where's your cardinal! Make haste.
ref: c. 1760, Robert Lloyd, Chit-Chat, an imitation of Theocritus:
text: 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.
ref: 1823, Lionel Thomas Berguer, World, page 115:
text: 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.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 274:
glosses: A woman's short cloak with a hood, originally made of scarlet cloth.
examples: text: He goes up, and finds the remains of the supper, Tankards full of egg-flip and cardinal, and a party playing at vingt-un.
ref: 1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford:
text: A Recipe to make Cardinal, which I attribute to the German governess, raises a problem.
ref: 1951, Herbert Warner Allen, A Contemplation of Wine, page 116:
text: 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.
ref: 1974, Dennis Walton Dodds, Napoleon's Love Child: A Biography of Count Leon, page 59:
glosses: Mulled red wine.
Synonyms: sense: any of family Cardinalidae
word: cardinalid
Derived terms: anticardinal
cardinal adjective
cardinalate
cardinal beetle
cardinal bird
cardinal bishop
cardinal concern
cardinal fish
cardinalfish
cardinal flower
cardinal gem
cardinalhood
cardinalic
cardinalin
cardinalitial
cardinality
cardinalize
cardinally
cardinal mark
cardinal nephew
cardinal-nephew
cardinal number
cardinal numeral
cardinal point
cardinal rule
cardinalship
cardinal sin
cardinal spider
cardinal symptom
cardinal variable
cardinal vein
cardinal virtue
cardinal virtues
cardinal vowel
cardinal vowels
College of Cardinals
incardinate
intercardinal
intersubcardinal
large cardinal
limit cardinal
noncardinal
northern cardinal
postcardinal
pseudocardinal
red cardinal
red cardinal flower
subcardinal
supracardinal
uncardinal
weakly cardinal
Related terms: english: numbers
translation: numbers
word: Contrast with ordinal
word: Card