Meaning & use
cardigan
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Meaning
nouncountable
A knitted piece of clothing for the upper body that opens at the front and is usually fastened with buttons or a zipper.
Grammar: A countable noun: you can say 'a cardigan' or 'two cardigans'.
Patterns
- wear a cardigan
- put on a cardigan
- a button-up cardigan
She wore a warm wool cardigan over her blouse.
He buttoned his cardigan because the office was cold.
I bought a light cardigan to wear on cool summer evenings.
Word forms
| plural | cardigans |
|---|
Common combinations
- wool cardigan
- She knitted a thick wool cardigan for the winter.
- button-up cardigan
- He prefers a button-up cardigan to a pullover.
- wear a cardigan
- You should wear a cardigan if you're going out; it's chilly.
- cardigan sweater
- In American English, people often say 'cardigan sweater'.
Synonyms and how they differ
Commonly confused: cardigan or cardiac?
cardigan vs cardiac
Cardiac means relating to the heart, while cardigan is a piece of clothing. They sound somewhat similar but are completely different.
Practice
She felt cold, so she ______ her cardigan before going outside.
Choose one answer.
If she felt cold, she would put on her cardigan to stay warm. 'Put off' means postpone, 'took off' means removed, and 'turned on' means switched on.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cardigan”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.