Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use cardinal in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Cardinal means of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal. Example: “The cardinal number “three” can be represented as “3” or “three”.”

Examples of cardinal by meaning

adjectiveOf fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal.

  • a cardinal rule

adjectiveOf or relating to the cardinal directions (north, south, east and west).

  • a cardinal mark

nounA deep red color, somewhat less vivid than scarlet, the traditional colour of a Catholic cardinal's cassock. (same as...

  • The cardinal red and silver grey colors were worn with great enthusiasm.1914, ἄν ἀνἁβιλε [án anhabile], “Under the Cardinal Red and Silver Grey”, in Corks and Curls, volume 27, University of Virginia, page 28

nounMulled red wine.

  • A Recipe to make Cardinal, which I attribute to the German governess, raises a problem.1951, Herbert Warner Allen, A Contemplation of Wine, page 116
  • It was de Rosenberg's practice to separate young bloods from their inheritance, and to facilitate this he served them a vicious drink called 'cardinal', a mulled wine of which the ascertainable ingredients were a pineapple and several mixed vintages.1974, Dennis Walton Dodds, Napoleon's Love Child: A Biography of Count Leon, page 59

More sentences with cardinal

  • The cardinal number “three” can be represented as “3” or “three”.From the entry cardinal number
  • “Three” is a cardinal number, while “third” is an ordinal number.From the entry cardinal number
  • "Three" is a cardinal number, while "third" is the corresponding ordinal number.From the entry ordinal
  • Definite articles, indefinite articles, and cardinal numbers acting as quantifiers are types of determiners.From the entry determiner
  • The axiom of choice is equivalent to the proposition that every infinite cardinal is an aleph.From the entry aleph
  • There are 3 cardinal degrees of transitivity of any one verb: intransitive, monotransitive and ditransitive.From the entry transitivity
  • If you set out birdseed in the winter, cardinals will be encouraged to overwinter.From the entry birdseed
  • "Twice" is an adverbial number, while "two" is a cardinal number.From the entry adverbial number
  • A Boolean lattice always has 2ⁿ elements for some cardinal number n.From the entry Boolean lattice
  • Under the concordate with Belgium, at least one Belgian clergyman must be created cardinal; by tradition, every archbishop of Mechelen is thus created a cardinal.From the entry create
  • Try to lie off the cardinal.From the entry lie off
  • In Isubu, certain cardinal numbers are subject to alliteral concord: they change their form so as to alliterate with the noun they modify.From the entry alliteral
  • He passed over several archbishops who would traditionally become cardinals to promote Gregory.2020 November 27, Daniel Burke and Delia Gallagher, “This archbishop has become the first African American cardinal in Catholic history”…. From the entry archbishop
  • The interrogatory stare of the cardinal is enough to bring a man to his knees.2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 207. From the entry interrogatory
  • But if discrimen is a cardinal virtue of adulthood, the tenets of infantilism work against it.2012, Michael Bywater, Big Babies: Or: Why Can't We Just Grow Up?, →ISBN. From the entry discrimen
  • The Roman Church consists representatively in the cardinals, but virtually in the pope.2009, Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. From the entry representatively
  • Most beginners are blissfully unaware that dropping in on someone is a cardinal sin.2003, Neal Miyake, “The Unwritten Rules of Surfing”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 14…. From the entry drop in
  • The septa in the cardinal quadrants are thickened and rhopaloid .2002, Palaeontologia Polonica - Issue 61, page 21. From the entry rhopaloid
  • Just outside the circle the cardinal directions are marked by four tokudawara.2000, Tony Allan, Realm of the Rising Sun: Japanese Myth, page 51. From the entry toku-dawara
  • They planned a new college of cardinals which would consist largely, if not wholly, of women.1996, Nigel Cawthorne, “Pope Joan”, in Sex Lives of the Popes: An Irreverent Exposé of the Bishops of Rome from St Peter to the Present…. From the entry Guglielmite
  • The cardinal numeral ‘one’ occurs in the singular and is declined like bogàt.1993, William W. Derbyshire, A Basic Reference Grammar of Slovene, Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, Inc., page 56. From the entry cardinal numeral
  • After all, it was the ordinals that made precise definition of the transfinite cardinals possible.1990, Joseph Warren Dauben, Georg Cantor: His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 180. From the entry transfinite number
  • Here were the three tents overshadowed by the great lehuas, still brilliant with their cardinal blossoms.1910, The Hawaiian Forester and Agriculturist, page 165. From the entry lehua
  • With her candid air, she would have duped cardinals and tricked Talleyrand.1901, F.C. de Sumichrast, The Complete Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 6 (IV), Bigelow, Smith and Company, page 44. From the entry hyperdiabolical
  • A council of cardinals was established to tackle key areas, notably the perilous state of the Vatican’s finances.2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian. From the entry coalface
  • The cardinals hired writers to write bad things about them.2013 January 7, Sam Thielman, “The Man From Oz Finds Religion”, in Adweek. From the entry swiftboat
  • Obviously they were well aware of the cardinal rule of being a college freshman: all's fair in innocent prankage.2011, John Randall Tabor, Homer Is Where the Heart Is, page 132. From the entry cardinal rule
  • The reine dwapo and the laplas swing the flags and the sword and salute the cardinal points and the congregation.2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books, page 48. From the entry laplas
  • 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. From the entry cardinal variable
  • 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. From the entry cardinal variable
  • Other species found in less abundance are marsh mallow, common threesquare, arrowhead, smartweed, water hemp, and cardinal flower.1987, chapter 3, in Ware Creek Water Supply Reservoir, James City County: Environmental Impact Statement, page 9. From the entry common threesquare
  • These four rice bags placed at the cardinal points of the ring are called toku-dawara (lucky straw bags).1976, The East, volume 12. From the entry toku-dawara
  • Cardinal plates broad, ventrally convex, merging in inner socket ridges.1975: Polska Akademia Nauk Komitet Geologiczny, Acta Geologica Polonica, volume 25, page 118 (Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe). From the entry falciferous
  • Albrecht, cardinal priest, archbishop in Mainz and Magdeburg, primate; Mr.1901, Martin Luther, Dr. Martin Luthers Sämmtliche Schriften, Volume 17, Superintendent of Documents, pages 398-399. From the entry archemperor
  • Francis riled conservative cardinals with his compassion for migrants and refugees, openness towards LGBTQ+ Catholics and demands for action on the climate crisis.2025 May 8, Angela Giuffrida and Harriet Sherwood, “White smoke from Sistine Chapel chimney signals election of new pope”, in The…. From the entry rile

Meaning of cardinal

  1. adjective Of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal.
  2. adjective Of or relating to the cardinal directions (north, south, east and west).
  3. adjective Describing a “natural” number used to indicate quantity (e.g., zero, one, two, three), as opposed to an ordinal number indicating relative position.

Full definition of cardinal

Questions about cardinal in a sentence

How do you use cardinal in a sentence?
Cardinal is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The cardinal number “three” can be represented as “3” or “three”.”
What is a short sentence with cardinal?
“a cardinal mark”
What does cardinal mean?
Cardinal means of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cardinal (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use cardinal in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cardinal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.