cardinal point
Americannoun
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cardinal points
plural
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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
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
Macmillan was more than willing to agree on the mutual benefits of scientific cooperation; such a sharing has long been a cardinal point of British foreign policy.
From Time Magazine Archive
On Capitol Hill a cardinal point was made in implementing U.S. participation in UNO.
From Time Magazine Archive
But to show more clearly that it is impossible, I will now make some inquiries concerning the cost of ocean steam, which is the cardinal point of interest in marine propulsion.
From Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post by Thomas Rainey
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.
