- warm and friendly: a cordial greeting
- giving heart; stimulating
- a drink with a fruit base, usually sold in concentrated form and diluted with water before being drunk: lime cordial
- another word for liqueur
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
cor•dial /ˈkɔrdʒəl/USA pronunciation
adj.
n.
cor•dial•ness, n. [uncountable]See -cord-.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- courteous and gracious;
warm: a cordial reception. - [before a noun] sincere;
strongly felt: They had a cordial dislike for each other.
n.
- Winea strong, sweetened liqueur: [uncountable]a bottle of cherry cordial.[countable]He drank several peppermint cordials.
cor•dial•ness, n. [uncountable]See -cord-.
cor•dial
(kôr′jəl or, esp. Brit., -dē əl),USA pronunciation adj.
n.
cor′dial•ly, adv.
cor′dial•ness, n.
- courteous and gracious;
friendly;
warm:a cordial reception. - invigorating the heart;
stimulating. - sincere;
heartfelt:a cordial dislike. - [Archaic.]of or pertaining to the heart.
n.
- Winea strong, sweetened, aromatic alcoholic liquor;
liqueur. - a stimulating medicine.
- anything that invigorates or exhilarates.
- Medieval Latin cordiālis, equivalent. to Latin cordi- (stem of cor) heart + -ālis -al1
- Middle English 1350–1400
cor′dial•ness, n.
- 1. affectionate, genial. 2. cheering.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
cordial /ˈkɔːdɪəl/ adj
'cordial' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
cassis
- entente cordiale
- homiletics
- kind
- warm
- welcome
- accord
- affable
- anisette
- atmospherics
- cinnamon
- civil
- cold
- cool
- cordiality
- Curaçao
- distant
- etymon
- friendly
- genial
- goodwilly
- heart
- hearty
- hippocras
- kümmel
- liqueur
- maraschino
- quasi-cordial
- remote
- rosolio
- turn
- uncordiality
- sloe gin