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say it: KAHR-duh-nuhl
cardinal is a noun and adjective meaning "(Roman Catholic Church) one of a group of more than 100 prominent bishops in the Sacred College who advise the Pope and elect new Popes". It carries 6 recorded senses.
(Roman Catholic Church) one of a group of more than 100 prominent bishops in the Sacred College who advise the Pope and elect new Popes
Roman Catholic
the number of elements in a mathematical set; denotes a quantity but not the order
crested thick-billed North American finch having bright red plumage in the male
serving as an essential component
“a cardinal rule”
“the central cause of the problem”
“an example that was fundamental to the argument”
“computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for cardinal come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.