cardinal

Pluralcardinals

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A senior official of the Roman Catholic Church, appointed by the pope and ranking just below him, who together with the others forms the body that elects each new pope.

   The newly appointed cardinal received his red hat from the pope.

   When the pope died, every cardinal under eighty gathered to choose his successor.

   Note

   Together these officials make up the College of Cardinals, which elects a new pope in conclave. Angela Giuffrida and Harriet Sherwood reported on that occasion in May 2025, naming Pietro Parolin among the frontrunners. As a title before a name the word takes a capital (Cardinal Parolin). In general reference it is lowercase (conservative cardinals), though Maurice Baring's Friday's Business (1932) capitalizes it even without a name.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A New World songbird of the genus Cardinalis, named for the vivid red plumage of the male.

   A male cardinal flashed scarlet against the snowy branches.

   The cardinal built its nest in the dense shrubs near the fence.

   Similarredbird

   Note

   A color name that became a bird name: the male's red plumage, matching the shade named for the cassock, gave these songbirds their name. That is why the word spans more than one group. It covers the genus Cardinalis, the wider family Cardinalidae, and birds once grouped with them only because they looked alike. Robert W. Chambers's The Younger Set (1907) pairs it with a color word: "a crimson cardinal winging."

3. 3
   adjective

   Relating to the four principal compass points: north, south, east, and west.

   The old map labeled each cardinal direction with an ornate symbol.

   Sailors aligned the ship using the cardinal points of the compass.

   Note

   On the water, the four main directions are the frame from which every other bearing is worked out, with the intercardinal points falling between them. At sea the adjective earns its keep in cardinal mark, a navigational marker that tells a vessel on which side of a hazard the safe water lies. Read the mark by its direction, and you know which way to pass.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of fundamental importance; crucial or pivotal.

   Honesty was the cardinal principle that guided her entire career.

   A cardinal mistake in the negotiation cost them the whole deal.

   Similarfundamental, chief, principal, key, main

   Oppositeminor, secondary

   Note

   The sense closest to the Latin: cardinālis meant "pertaining to a hinge," and so whatever something turns or depends on. A cardinal rule is the one everything else hinges on. The word has long kept company with sins and virtues. Shakespeare and Fletcher warn of "cardinal sins" in 1613, and Michael Drayton complains that "Impudence is now a cardinal virtue."

5. 5
   adjective

   Describing a number that indicates quantity, such as one, two, or three, rather than position in a sequence.

   Children master cardinal numbers before they learn to count by order.

   In this table, each cardinal value records a simple count of items.

   Oppositeordinal

6. 6
   nouncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of cardinal number.

   In set theory, a cardinal measures how many members a collection has.

   The cardinal five represents a collection of exactly five elements.

   Note

   Mathematics stretches the counting number until it can measure any set, infinite ones included. Bertrand Russell's Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1920) explains that the smallest infinite cardinal is the one Cantor marked with the Hebrew aleph and the suffix 0, the aleph-null of set theory. The shortened noun takes the ordinary plural, cardinals. By contrast, the grammarian's cardinal names a word, not a quantity.

7. 7
   adjective

   Having a bright, deep red color, like a Catholic cardinal's robe.

   The autumn maples turned a brilliant cardinal shade.

   Her gown was a deep cardinal that glowed under the lights.

   Similarscarlet, crimson

   Note

   The red came by way of the Church, not the hinge: it is the color of a Catholic cardinal's cassock, lent to anything that shares it. It works before a noun (cardinal silk) or after a verb (the maples turned cardinal). Beside the noun for the shade, the compound cardinal red names the same color.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A deep red color, somewhat less vivid than scarlet, traditionally the shade of a Catholic cardinal's cassock.

   The designer favored a rich cardinal for the gallery walls.

   Against the gray stone, the banner's cardinal looked almost regal.

   Similarscarlet, crimson

   Note

   A fashion and trade name for the shade, used on its own the way navy or olive is. Demorest's Monthly Magazine (1889) lists cardinal among the favorite solid colors for heavy beaver cloth. Corks and Curls (1914) recalls students' hatbands in "cardinal and grey ribbon." In the same passage it speaks of "cardinal red," switching freely between the short name and the compound.

9. 9
   nouncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of cardinal numeral.

   Every language has a set of cardinals for expressing quantity.

   The teacher drilled the cardinal 'twelve' until everyone could spell it.

   Note

   Grammar's shortening of cardinal numeral. Here the thing named is the word itself (one, two, twelve) rather than the quantity it stands for. Grammarians set cardinals beside ordinals, as Frederic M. Wheelock does in Wheelock's Latin, calling the two the commonest numerals "in Latin, as in English." So twelve is a cardinal and twelfth an ordinal.

10. 10
    nouncountableabbreviationellipsis

    Ellipsis of cardinal flower.

    The cardinal thrives in moist soil along stream banks.

    Hummingbirds visited the cardinal all through late summer.

    Note

    The plant behind the shortening is Lobelia cardinalis, whose Latin species name repeats the word. It is a lobelia native to the Americas, usually with vibrant red flowers that draw hummingbirds. Marion D. Sullivan's song "Mary Lee" crowns it: "The cardinal red—a queen is she." Outside a garden setting the full name cardinal flower is clearer, since cardinal alone more readily suggests the bird.

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