radical

1. 1

   Of or pertaining to the root of a plant.not-comparable

2. 2

   Of or pertaining to the root of a word.not-comparable

3. 3

   Produced using the root of the tongue.not-comparable

4. 4

   Relating to a radix or mathematical root.

   • a radical quantity; a radical sign
5. 5

   Pertaining to the basic or intrinsic nature of something.

   • The most determined exertions of that authority, against them, only showed their radical independence.
6. 6

   Favoring fundamental change, or change at the root cause of a matter.

   • His beliefs are radical.
7. 7

   Thoroughgoing; far-reaching.

   • The spread of the cancer required radical surgery, and the entire organ was removed.
8. 8

   Involving free radicals.not-comparable

9. 9

   Excellent; awesome.slang

   • That was a radical jump!

syn. Jacobin · Jacobinic · Jacobinical

ant. derivative · derived

1. 1

   A root (of a number or quantity).

2. 2

   In logographic writing systems such as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a character used to index it. Often, but not always, this is also the portion indicating meaning; compare the following sense.; 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. 3

   In logographic writing systems such as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a character used to index it. Often, but not always, this is also the portion indicating meaning; compare the following sense.; Any component of a logographic character, whether used for indexing or not, whether semantic or not.commonproscribed

   • The boy recognised the Chinese characters, though the calligraphy looked a bit strange, as if drawn by someone who had seen them and copied them out radical by radical without knowing what they meant.
4. 4

   In Celtic languages, the basic, underlying form of an initial consonant which can be further mutated under the Celtic initial consonant mutations.

5. 5

   In Semitic languages, any one of the set of consonants (typically three) that make up a root.

6. 6

   A group of atoms, joined by covalent bonds, that take part in reactions as a single unit.

7. 7

   A free radical.

8. 8

   Given an ideal I in a commutative ring R, another ideal, denoted Rad(I) or √I, 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. 9

   Given a ring R, an ideal containing elements of R that share a property considered, in some sense, "not good".

10. 10

    The intersection of maximal submodules of a given module.