cardinal

adjective
car·din·al
/ˈkɑːd(ɪ)nəl/

Of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal.

Other meanings

Describing a “natural” number used to indicate quantity (e.g., zero, one, two, three), as opposed to an ordinal number indicating relative position.
Having a bright red color (from the color of a Catholic cardinal’s cassock).

Related words

large cardinal
cardinal gem
College of Cardinals
anticardinal
cardinalfish
cardinalic
cardinalin
cardinalize
intercardinal
noncardinal
pseudocardinal
uncardinal

Example sentences

“There's a male cardinal at the bird feeder.”
Tatoeba · Miktsoanit · CC0

Word history

From Latin "cardinālis".

Where this comes from

This definition is adapted from “cardinal” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.