How to Use cardinal in a Sentence

cardinal

1 of 2 noun
  • The Pope appointed two new cardinals this year.
  • The cardinals flash, again, like fire over our little piece of sky.
    — Southern Living, 1 May 2017
  • Not so long ago, most of the world's supply of cardinals came from just one place.
    — Jeff Guo, NPR, 18 Mar. 2026
  • God chooses the pope, not cardinals, my barista says.
    — David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
  • God chooses the pope, not cardinals, my barista says.
    — Harpers Magazine, 23 Sep. 2025
  • There are deer in the woods, large-mouth bass in the water and cardinals in the air.
    — Jeanne Houck, Cincinnati.com, 28 Apr. 2017
  • The mascot was a cardinal, and the school colors were red and black.
    — Paula Wethington, CBS News, 4 June 2026
  • Bishops, cardinals and priests filled the space.
    — Kristine Tran, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Aug. 2025
  • These seed heads are a great source of food for cardinals, finches and chickadees.
    — Chris McKeown, The Enquirer, 12 Aug. 2023
  • An up-close image of the fiend, lurking above the cardinal's deathbed.
    — Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 10 Nov. 2023
  • He was named a cardinal that July.
    — Paul Elie, New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Later that year, he was named a cardinal, the top cadre of the church from which popes are selected.
    — Rachel Donadio, New York Times, 31 Dec. 2022
  • Two crimson cardinals perched on a mistletoe branch.
    — Aliss Higham, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Sep. 2025
  • This seed is a favorite of cardinals, finches, nuthatches, and many more.
    — Abby Fribush, Southern Living, 18 June 2026
  • He's been in Vatican City as a cardinal for a while now.
    — Tax Notes Staff, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Very few pass by without sifting through the racks of gold and cardinal that saturate the house’s lawn.
    — Haley Sawyer, Oc Register, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Pope Leo was elected in a conclave of cardinals in May.
    — Meredith Kile, PEOPLE, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Seeing a cardinal with an orangish-yellow hue has been reported over time.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 27 Nov. 2025
  • But this was goodbye; Jones headed across town, switching out blue and gold for cardinal and gold.
    — Benjamin Royer, Oc Register, 26 Nov. 2025
  • The cardinal’s groupies, and the synod’s enemies, hung around, too.
    — Jason Horowitz, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2023
  • The pope and cardinals and bishops allied with him should be the signs and instruments of unity in the church.
    — R. R. Reno, Foreign Affairs, 13 Nov. 2018
  • Red is also the tunic of cardinals, as well as the velvet cloak of aristocrats.
    — Selene Oliva, Glamour, 18 Sep. 2023
  • Northern cardinals have an average lifespan of at least three years.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 27 Nov. 2025
  • An Italian cardinal told reporters he had been informed that the pope was doing well.
    — Fox News, 5 July 2021
  • But no new cardinals will be made at this meeting, which is purely consultative.
    — CBS News, 20 Dec. 2025
  • Francis stripped him of his privileges as cardinal before any finding of guilt.
    — Stefano Pitrelli, Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2023
  • When fruiting, these trees attract cardinals, robins, waxwings, and many other songbirds.
    — Anne Readel, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Feb. 2026
  • Female cardinals have more muted feathers, with brown and gold-flecked plumage in addition to tufts of red at the crown and tail.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 27 Nov. 2025
  • The ceiling was to be shared by a bon vivant, learned cardinal with a select audience of like-minded men.
    — Monika Schmitter, Fortune, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Benedict then returned to the Vatican, no longer a pope or cardinal.
    — Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 2 Jan. 2023

cardinal

2 of 2 adjective
  • The cardinal rule of drug smuggling is don’t get pulled over.
    — John Koopman, Rolling Stone, 21 Sep. 2023
  • The cardinal tetra is one of the most popular pet fish in the world.
    — Jeff Guo, NPR, 18 Mar. 2026
  • Aries is a cardinal fire sign and the first sign of the zodiac.
    — Lisa Stardust, Vogue, 2 Oct. 2025
  • So much so that he was charged with sedition, the cardinal colonial sin.
    — Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 27 Dec. 2020
  • Like most annual vines, cardinal climber prefers to be in full sun.
    — Viveka Neveln, Better Homes & Gardens, 16 Oct. 2022
  • One of the cardinal rules of sportswriting is that writers don’t root.
    — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Aug. 2021
  • But this bright-red cardinal looks like he was plucked right out of a Christmas card.
    — Chron, 13 Dec. 2020
  • Brady also owned up to the cardinal sin of getting ahead of herself.
    — New York Times, 18 Feb. 2021
  • That’s followed by sliding his feet into a pair of large, cardinal talons.
    — Vincent T. Davis, San Antonio Express-News, 23 Jan. 2023
  • And in spring, the cardinal couple started bringing a young bird with them that was brown with a touch of red.
    — al, 9 Mar. 2021
  • To secure such an outcome means breaking his cardinal rule.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 24 Feb. 2026
  • The cardinal reason behind this may be that this ecosystem is still governed by men.
    — Expert Panel, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2022
  • This even though Dippold broke one of the cardinal rules for selling a project to execs.
    — Josef Adalian, Vulture, 18 June 2026
  • In some senses, the top of the large cardinal hierarchy is in sight.
    — Dave Linkletter, Popular Mechanics, 22 July 2022
  • The second cardinal rule for observing snowy owls is to never feed them.
    — Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 20 Dec. 2021
  • This was the ancients’ guide for placing the four cardinal signs in the zodiac.
    — Emily Simone, Allure, 20 May 2022
  • Aries Aries, a cardinal fire sign, has a lot in common with Capricorn.
    — Katie Mannion, Peoplemag, 12 Jan. 2024
  • How many cardinal-and-gold diehards knew who Aranda was until this season?
    — Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2021
  • This cardinal fire sign isn’t afraid to live life to the fullest, often with an unquenchable thirst for a challenge.
    — Cori Sears, Better Homes & Gardens, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The cardinal rule of stargazing is going somewhere dark — the darker the skies, the better the view.
    — Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 11 Aug. 2023
  • This would appear to violate the cardinal rule of reserves.
    — Harvey Levine, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Sep. 2025
  • For all his faults and all the reasons for his firing, Herman’s cardinal sin was not winning enough.
    — Chuck Carlton, Dallas News, 3 Jan. 2021
  • It is heavily guarded because the cardinal rule of the place is that there is no violence.
    — Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 7 Aug. 2025
  • The scene involved a character who snitched being hung from a helicopter for the cardinal sin of gang life.
    — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 15 June 2022
  • Perhaps the cardinal sin is the failure to develop a creative brief.
    — Derek Rucker, Forbes, 10 Sep. 2021
  • That is to say, one of the cardinal pieces of beauty guru advice was that drugstore mascara was the gold standard.
    — Annie Goldsmith, Town & Country, 21 Aug. 2021
  • The Yalalag dancers associate it with the four cardinal points and the union of the peoples who live in the mountains of the state.
    — Fernanda Pérez Sánchez, Vogue, 8 Aug. 2022
  • As Raymond quickly pointed out, a cardinal rule of the job is that mascots must never stand still.
    — New York Times, 6 Aug. 2021
  • Frequent Perusers know that to be the cardinal sin of coaches and their dealings with heathens such as me.
    — Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 6 Jan. 2022
  • See, this is how you parent, Dad pointing out every cardinal and blue jay and missing all the warblers.
    — David Gilbert, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cardinal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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