cardio
car·dio-/ˈkɑɹ.di.oʊ/adjective, noun
cardio is an adjective meaning “Cardiovascular; pertaining to the health of the circulatory and respiratory systems” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-A-R-D-I-O and has 2 syllables (car·dio-), and it appears 2.8 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does cardio mean?
adjective
- 1
Cardiovascular; pertaining to the health of the circulatory and respiratory systems.
noun
- 1
Exercise with the goal of raising the heart rate by walking or running on the treadmill.
I did some cardio today instead of lifting weights.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce cardio?
- UK /ˈkɑː.dɪ.əʊ/
- US /ˈkɑɹ.di.oʊ/
Cardio has 2 syllables, split car·dio- in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cardio.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cardio
- cardios plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is cardio?
Cardio appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Cardio in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cardio- |
| German | kardio- , Cardio, Cardiotraining |
| Portuguese | cardio- , cárdio |
| Spanish | cardio- , cardio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cardio come from?
Clipping of cardiovascular.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).