cardinal

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Of foremost importance; paramount.
• adjective Dark to deep or vivid red.
• noun Roman Catholic Church A high church official, ranking just below the pope, who has been appointed by a pope to membership in the College of Cardinals.
• noun A dark to deep or vivid red.
• noun A North American bird (Cardinalis cardinalis) having a crested head, a short thick bill, and bright red plumage in the male.
• noun A short hooded cloak, originally of scarlet cloth, worn by women in the 1700s.
• noun A cardinal number.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a hinge; noting that on which something else hinges or depends; hence, chief; fundamental; preëminent; of special importance: as, cardinal virtues or sins; the cardinal doctrines of a creed; the cardinal points.
• In conchology, of or relating to the hinge of a bivalve shell: as, cardinal teeth.
• In entomology, pertaining to the cardo or base of the maxilla, which is sometimes called the cardinal piece.
• [See II., 3.] Of a rich deep-red color, somewhat less vivid than scarlet.
• In astrology, the rising and setting of the sun, the zenith, and the nadir.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Of fundamental importance; preëminent; superior; chief; principal.
• adjective the numbers one, two, three, etc., in distinction from first, second, third, etc., which are called ordinal numbers.
• adjective (Geol.), (Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir.
• adjective (Astron.) Aries, Libra, Cancer, and Capricorn.
• adjective (Zoöl.) the central teeth of bivalve shell. See Bivalve.
• adjective (Anat.) the veins in vertebrate embryos, which run each side of the vertebral column and returm the blood to the heart. They remain through life in some fishes.
• adjective preëminent virtues; among the ancients, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.
• adjective winds which blow from the cardinal points due north, south, east, or west.
• noun (R. C. Ch.) One of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the pope's council, or the sacred college.
• noun A woman's short cloak with a hood.
• noun Mulled red wine.
• noun the cardinal bird, also called the northern cardinal.
• noun (Zoöl.) an American song bird (Cardinalis cardinalis, or Cardinalis Virginianus), of the family Fringillidæ, or finches of which the male has a bright red plumage, and both sexes have a high, pointed crest on its head; -- it is also called the northern cardinal or eastern cardinal. The males have loud and musical notes resembling those of a fife. Other related species are also called cardinal birds.
• noun (Bot.) an herbaceous plant (Lobelia cardinalis) bearing brilliant red flowers of much beauty.
• noun a color like that of a cardinal's cassock, hat, etc.; a bright red, darker than scarlet, and between scarlet and crimson.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal.
• adjective nautical Of or relating to the cardinal directions (north, south, east and west).
• adjective Describing a "natural" number used to indicate quantity (e.g., one, two, three), as opposed to an ordinal number indicating relative position.
• adjective Having a bright red color (from the color of a Catholic cardinal's cassock).
• noun A number indicating quantity, or the size of a set, e.g., one, two, three. (See Wikipedia article on Cardinal number.)
• noun An official in the Catholic Church, ranking only below the Pope and the patriarchs. (See Wikipedia article on Catholic cardinals.)
• noun A songbird of the finch family, Cardinalis cardinalis.
• noun Any of various related passerine birds of the family Cardinalidae. (See Wikipedia article on cardinal birds.)
• noun A shade of scarlet associated with the colour of a Catholic cardinal's cassock.
• noun A woman's short cloak with a hood.
• noun mulled red wine

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective being or denoting a numerical quantity but not order
• noun the number of elements in a mathematical set; denotes a quantity but not the order
• adjective serving as an essential component
• noun (Roman Catholic Church) one of a group of more than 100 prominent bishops in the Sacred College who advise the Pope and elect new Popes
• noun crested thick-billed North American finch having bright red plumage in the male
• noun a variable color averaging a vivid red