as in main
coming before all others in importance
the cardinal rule of medicine: do no harm
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Recent Examples of cardinal
Changing that state of affairs, and doing so as quickly as possible, is a cardinal European task.
—
Ilan Berman, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2025
Nearby, a stone pagoda bears a tall, striking pillar which has four Buddha faces — one per cardinal direction.
—Lilit Marcus, CNN Money, 27 Nov. 2025
There are three such cardinal winds, each of them gods and all of them supposedly siblings, three male and the fourth, a southeasterly that tends to blow in the wet winter season, female.
—Big Think, 18 Nov. 2025
At the very bottom lay a smaller cross-shaped chamber, where colored soils – blue, green, and yellow – were carefully placed to match the four cardinal directions.
—New Atlas, 14 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cardinal
Ilan Berman, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2025
Nearby, a stone pagoda bears a tall, striking pillar which has four Buddha faces — one per cardinal direction.
—Lilit Marcus, CNN Money, 27 Nov. 2025
There are three such cardinal winds, each of them gods and all of them supposedly siblings, three male and the fourth, a southeasterly that tends to blow in the wet winter season, female.
—Big Think, 18 Nov. 2025
At the very bottom lay a smaller cross-shaped chamber, where colored soils – blue, green, and yellow – were carefully placed to match the four cardinal directions.
—New Atlas, 14 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cardinal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cardinal
Adjective
-
Sami Zayn won a Fatal 4-Way main event for the right to face Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia.—
Alfred Konuwa,
Forbes.com,
25 Jan. 2026
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This could happen especially with more hilly routes or ones not near main roads.—
Chilekasi Adele,
CBS News,
25 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The primary driver now is its Infrastructure Solutions Group, which encompasses servers, storage, and networking — the vital equipment that fuels data centers.—
Trefis Team,
Forbes.com,
23 Jan. 2026
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Heavy snow, ice, and extreme cold will be the primary threats from Saturday night into Monday morning.—
Adam Thompson,
CBS News,
23 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Centuries ago, exhalations of humans and animals, in addition to that derived from natural processes such as decay and forest fires, may have been predominant.—
Beronda L. Montgomery,
PEOPLE,
19 Jan. 2026
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The normal response to the rise of a newly predominant power was for others to balance against it.—
Robert Kagan,
The Atlantic,
18 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Organizations that delay action delay feedback, and over time, learning velocity, not initial strategy, becomes the dominant driver of performance.—
Matthew C. Meade,
Forbes.com,
21 Jan. 2026
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As his presence became more and more dominant, his work was treated less like music and more like a logo or a brand activation.—
Jeff Ihaza,
Rolling Stone,
21 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Cobo is recognized as a foremost expert on Latin music.—
William Earl,
Variety,
20 Jan. 2026
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From the jump, however, Denver didn’t just have confidence in what Payton could provide as a past Super Bowl winner and with his reputation as one of the game’s foremost offensive minds and quarterback developers.—
Parker Gabriel,
Denver Post,
18 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The principal ownership for both leases is the same — Art Engel, a longtime player in tidelands real estate.—
Lori Weisberg,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 Jan. 2026
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Tax revenue from stock-option withholding paid by some of the state’s biggest tech companies made up about 10% of all income tax withholding in 2025, estimated Chas Alamo, the principal fiscal and policy analyst with the LAO.—
Levi Sumagaysay,
Mercury News,
6 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Bulletin board member Steve Fetter stated that the rise of ‘unregulated AI tools’ poses a big threat to human survival in the present times.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
28 Jan. 2026
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More than 8,000 volunteers are with the program so far, but leaders have a goal of growing Phambassadors to at least 10,000 people before the year's biggest events.—
Nikki DeMentri,
CBS News,
28 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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If approved for the public safety role, Williams would be Pittsburgh's first Black director of the department.—
Chilekasi Adele,
CBS News,
28 Jan. 2026
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Johnson was around in 2013 when Dave Gettleman took defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short in the first and second rounds, respectively, in Gettleman’s first draft as Carolina’s GM.—
Joseph Person,
New York Times,
28 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cardinal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cardinal. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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