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radical

Pronunciation: /ˈɹædɪkəl/

The English word “radical” has 20 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Of or pertaining to the root of a plant.
  2. Of or pertaining to the root of a word.
  3. Produced using the root of the tongue.
  4. Relating to a radix or mathematical root.
  5. Pertaining to the basic or intrinsic nature of something.
  6. Favoring fundamental change, or change at the root cause of a matter.
  7. Thoroughgoing; far-reaching.
  8. Involving free radicals.
  9. Excellent; awesome.

noun

  1. A root (of a number or quantity).
  2. In logographic writing systems such as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a character (if any) that provides an indication of its meaning, as opposed to being wholly phonetic.
  3. Any component of a logographic character, whether used for indexing or not, whether semantic or not.
  4. In Celtic languages, the basic, underlying form of an initial consonant which can be further mutated under the Celtic initial consonant mutations.
  5. In Semitic languages, any one of the set of consonants (typically three) that make up a root.
  6. A group of atoms, joined by covalent bonds, that take part in reactions as a single unit.
  7. A free radical.
  8. Given an ideal I in a commutative ring R, another ideal, denoted Rad(I) or √, such that an element x ∈ R is in Rad(I) if, for some positive integer n, xⁿ ∈ I; equivalently, the intersection of all prime ideals containing I.
  9. Given a ring R, an ideal containing elements of R that share a property considered, in some sense, "not good".
  10. The intersection of maximal submodules of a given module.
  11. The product of the distinct prime factors of a given positive integer.

Etymology

PIE word *wréh₂ds Inherited from Middle English radical, from Latin rādīcālis (“of or pertaining to the root, having roots, radical”). Compare grassroots.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.