Ordinal

//ˈɔɹ.dɪ.nəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An ordinal number such as first, second and third.

    "The most common numerals in Latin, as in English, are the "cardinals"[…]and the "ordinals"[…]"

  2. 2
    the number designating place in an ordered sequence wordnet
  3. 3
    A book used in the ordination of Anglican ministers, or in certain Roman Catholic services
  4. 4
    A unique serial number assigned to a satoshi based on its position in the blockchain.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Indicating position in a sequence. not-comparable

    ""Three" is a cardinal number, while "third" is the corresponding ordinal number."

  2. 2
    Pertaining to a taxon at the rank of order. not-comparable
  3. 3
    Intercardinal. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    being or denoting a numerical order in a series wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to a taxonomic order wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
1000th100th101st105th10th110th

Example

More examples

"Some countries use ordinal numbers to count millennia, whereas others count them using cardinal numbers."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ōrdinālis, adjective formed from noun ōrdō (“order”), + adjective suffix -ālis.

Related phrases

limit ordinalordinal adjectiveordinal dateordinal directionordinal indicatorordinal numberordinal numeralordinal rankordinal scaleordinal variablep-adic ordinalordinal number

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.