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cardinal virtue

cardinal virtue noun: one of the four foundational virtues identified by Greek and Christian philosophers, on which other virtues depend: justice, temperance, prudence, or fortitude.

Noun

cardinal virtue (plural cardinal virtues)

  1. (in plural, often) One of the four foundational virtues identified by Greek and Christian philosophers, on which other virtues depend: justice, temperance, prudence, or fortitude.
    • Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrées, as Lord Henry remarked once, in a discussion on the subject, and there is possibly a good deal to be said for his view.1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC

cardinal virtue meaning in Arabic

cardinal virtue in Arabic

one of the four foundational virtues
اَلْفَضَائِل اَلرَّئِيسِيَّة al-faḍāʔil ar-raʔīsiyya

Forms of cardinal virtue

pluralcardinal virtues

Origin of cardinal virtue

From Latin cardinālis (“pertaining to a hinge (hence applied to that on which something turns or depends), important, principal, chief”).

Questions about cardinal virtue

What does cardinal virtue mean?
Cardinal virtue means one of the four foundational virtues identified by Greek and Christian philosophers, on which other virtues depend: justice, temperance, prudence, or fortitude.
What is cardinal virtue in Arabic?
Cardinal virtue in Arabic is اَلْفَضَائِل اَلرَّئِيسِيَّة (al-faḍāʔil ar-raʔīsiyya). See Cardinal virtue meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is cardinal virtue?
Cardinal virtue is a noun.
What is the plural of cardinal virtue?
The plural of cardinal virtue is cardinal virtues.

Words near cardinal virtue in the dictionary

  1. cardinal tetras
  2. cardinal variable
  3. cardinal variables
  4. cardinal vein
  5. cardinal veins
  6. cardinal virtue
  7. cardinal virtues
  8. cardinal vowel
  9. cardinal vowels
  10. cardinal-nephew
  11. cardinal-nephews

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cardinal virtue (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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