cardinal point
Americannoun
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a crucial point in an argument, agenda, history, etc.; key fact or idea.
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any of the four main points of the compass: north, south, east, or west.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In this now classic treatise on apocalyptic thinking in fiction, Kermode argues that it “is commonplace to talk about our historical situation as uniquely terrible and in a way privileged, a cardinal point in time.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2016
The terms of the Straits Convention reduced British opportunities to checkmate Russia or bring naval pressure to bear on Turkish ambitions, cardinal point of British naval-political strategy.
From Time Magazine Archive
But a cardinal point in modern German military theory is that allies should fight separately.
From Time Magazine Archive
It practically abandoned all pretence on the part of the Great Powers to protect the Christians in Turkey, cardinal point of Gladstone's eastern policy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tennyson once said to Bishop Lightfoot: "The cardinal point of Christianity is the life after death."
From Some Essentials of Religion by Bidwell, E. J.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
