| Noun | 1. | cardinal - (Roman Catholic Church) one of a group of more than 100 prominent bishops in the Sacred College who advise the Pope and elect new Popesbishop - a clergyman having spiritual and administrative authority; appointed in Christian churches to oversee priests or ministers; considered in some churches to be successors of the twelve apostles of Christ dean - (Roman Catholic Church) the head of the College of Cardinals Cesare Borgia, Borgia - Italian cardinal and military leader; model for Machiavelli's prince (1475-1507) | |
| 2. | cardinal - the number of elements in a mathematical set; denotes a quantity but not the ordernumber - a concept of quantity derived from zero and units; "every number has a unique position in the sequence" googol - a cardinal number represented as 1 followed by 100 zeros (ten raised to the power of a hundred) googolplex - a cardinal number represented as 1 followed by a googol of zeros (ten raised to the power of a googol) | |
| 3. | cardinal - a variable color averaging a vivid redred, redness - the quality or state of the chromatic color resembling the hue of blood | |
| 4. | cardinal - crested thick-billed North American finch having bright red plumage in the malefinch - any of numerous small songbirds with short stout bills adapted for crushing seeds | |
| Adj. | 1. | cardinal - 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"important, of import - of great significance or value; "important people"; "the important questions of the day" | |
| 2. | cardinal - being or denoting a numerical quantity but not order; "cardinal numbers"ordinal - being or denoting a numerical order in a series; "ordinal numbers"; "held an ordinal rank of seventh" | |