cardinal

\kaʁ.di.nal\

/\kaʁ.di.nal\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“cardinal” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #3,985. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#3,985
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est principal, essentiel.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cardinal · cardinal · French

cardinal · rank #3,985 · 12 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,985
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH automatique

Nearest frequency peer: automatique (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « cardinal »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « cardinal » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cardinal vs carina
75% similar
cardinal vs cordial
75% similar
cardinal vs cardinaux
78% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cardinal
PropertyValue
Headwordcardinal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\kaʁ.di.nal\
Letters8
Frequency rank#3,985
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « cardinal »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cardinalse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « automatique » (#3,984), « argument » (#3,983), « chaude » (#3,987). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cardinal » est au #3,985. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around cardinal (IPA \kaʁ.di.nal\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #3,985 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for cardinal, with forms such as "acrdinal", "cadrinal", and "carddinal". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "carina", "cordial", "cardinaux", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is cardinal, spelled C-A-R-D-I-N-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est principal, essentiel.
  2. 2
    Qualifie les quatre points de l’horizon auxquels on rapporte généralement tous les autres points, et qui sont le nord, le sud, l’est et l’ouest.
  3. 3
    Qualifie les signes astrologiques qui déterminent les quatre saisons.
  4. 4
    Identifie les éléments remarquables de la charnière bivalve.
  5. 5
    Désigne les voyelles de référence permettant de situer toutes les autres voyelles les unes par rapport aux autres. → voir voyelle cardinale
  6. 6
    Qui est principal, essentiel.
  7. 7
    Qui indique la quantité, par opposition à un nombre ordinal qui indique la position, l’ordre, le rang. → voir nombre cardinal
  8. 8
    Qualifie les noms ou les adjectifs qui indiquent la quantité.
  9. 9
    Qualifie les veines du corps de l’embryon. → voir veine cardinale

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cardinal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. On dit dans la morale, les quatre vertus cardinales, […] qui servent comme de fondement ou de pivot à toutes les autres.
  2. Montrez-le. Comment nomme-t-on ce point cardinal ? — ouest ?

This word in other languages

cardinal(English)kardinal(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acrdinal
  • cadrinal
  • carddinal
  • cardianl
  • cardinall
  • cardinla
  • cardinnal
  • cardnial
  • caridnal
  • carrdinal
  • ccardinal
  • cradinal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cardinal - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

acrdinal2cadrinal2carddinal1cardianl2cardinall1cardinla2cardinnal1cardnial2
Edit distance from "cardinal"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cardinal"?
"cardinal" is spelled C-A-R-D-I-N-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \kaʁ.di.nal\.
What does "cardinal" mean?
As an adjective, "cardinal" means: Qui est principal, essentiel.
What words are commonly confused with "cardinal"?
"cardinal" is commonly confused with "carina", "cordial", "cardinaux". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cardinal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cardinal" is \kaʁ.di.nal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cardinal" come from?
"cardinal" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cardinal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

argument#3,983fenêtres#3,996épreuves#3,972libertés#4,001

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

voulaient12 variantsislamique12 variantslégitime12 variantsmensonge12 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list