kardinalis

Kardinalis is a term that appears mainly as a transliteration or variant spelling of the Latin adjective cardinalis. In Latin, cardinalis means “of a cardinal” or “principal,” and in modern biological nomenclature the standard form is cardinalis, not kardinalis. As a standalone name, kardinalis is not recognized as a valid taxon in major taxonomic databases, but it may appear in historical texts, regional spellings, or as a typographical variant in non-Latin languages.

In binomial names, cardinalis appears as a species or subspecies epithet. The genus Cardinalis includes the well-known Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) and the Pyrrhuloxia or desert cardinal (Cardinalis sinuatus). These examples illustrate how the root is used to indicate a cardinal color or other cardinal-associated traits in species names, rather than as a separate genus or species.

Beyond taxonomy, the root also appears in color naming and heraldry to denote a red color associated with the cardinal bird and the rank of cardinal in ecclesiastical tradition. The spelling kardinalis may occur in some languages or older texts as a variant of cardinalis.

See also

Cardinalis

Cardinal (rank)

Cardinal color

Cardinal (disambiguation)