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cardinal variable

cardinal variable noun: a variable whose values are ordered, that can be multiplied by a scalar, and for which the magnitude of differences in values is meaningful.

Noun

cardinal variable (plural cardinal variables)

  1. A variable whose values are ordered, that can be multiplied by a scalar, and for which the magnitude of differences in values is meaningful.
    • In dealing with certainty choices, standard economic theory treats utility (intensity of preference) as an ordinal rather than a cardinal variable.1992, Jack Hirshleifer with John G. Riley, The analytics of uncertainty and information, page 14
    • The least squares estimation treats happiness as a cardinal variable.2001, Bruno S. Frey with Alois Stutzer, Happiness and economics: how the economy and institutions affect well-being, page 185

Forms of cardinal variable

pluralcardinal variables

Questions about cardinal variable

What does cardinal variable mean?
Cardinal variable means a variable whose values are ordered, that can be multiplied by a scalar, and for which the magnitude of differences in values is meaningful.
What part of speech is cardinal variable?
Cardinal variable is a noun.
What is the plural of cardinal variable?
The plural of cardinal variable is cardinal variables.

Words near cardinal variable in the dictionary

  1. cardinal splines
  2. cardinal symptom
  3. cardinal symptoms
  4. cardinal tetra
  5. cardinal tetras
  6. cardinal variable
  7. cardinal variables
  8. cardinal vein
  9. cardinal veins
  10. cardinal virtue
  11. cardinal virtues

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cardinal variable (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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