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IRRATIONAL
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A real number that cannot be expressed as a rational number
Synonyms:
irrational; irrational number
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("irrational" is a kind of...):
real; real number (any rational or irrational number)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "irrational"):
transcendental number (an irrational number that is not algebraic)
algebraic number (root of an algebraic equation with rational coefficients)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not consistent with or using reason
Example:
irrational animals
Classified under:
Similar:
blind; unreasoning (not based on reason or evidence)
reasonless (not endowed with the capacity to reason)
nonrational (not based on reason)
superstitious (showing ignorance of the laws of nature and faith in magic or chance)
Also:
incoherent (without logical or meaningful connection)
illogical; unlogical (lacking in correct logical relation)
unreasonable (not reasonable; not showing good judgment)
Antonym:
rational (consistent with or based on or using reason)
Derivation:
irrationality (the state of being irrational; lacking powers of understanding)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Real but not expressible as the quotient of two integers
Example:
irrational numbers
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Domain category:
math; mathematics; maths (a science (or group of related sciences) dealing with the logic of quantity and shape and arrangement)
Antonym:
rational (capable of being expressed as a quotient of integers)
Pertainym:
ratio (the relative magnitudes of two quantities (usually expressed as a quotient))
Context examples:
It is because Socialism is inevitable; because the present rotten and irrational system cannot endure; because the day is past for your man on horseback.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
All that sounded extravagant or irrational in the progress of the reconciliation might have no origin but in the language of the relators.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
How inconsiderate, how indelicate, how irrational, how unfeeling had been her conduct!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received: no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I was loaded with general opprobrium.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I, who had lived my life in quiet places, only to enter at the age of thirty-five upon a course of the most irrational adventure I could have imagined, never had more incident and excitement crammed into any forty hours of my experience.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
These unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity, and virtue; of teaching ministers to consult the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities, eminent services; of instructing princes to know their true interest, by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people; of choosing for employments persons qualified to exercise them, with many other wild, impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man to conceive; and confirmed in me the old observation, that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational, which some philosophers have not maintained for truth.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
She had loved, she did love still, and she had all the suffering which a warm temper and a high spirit were likely to endure under the disappointment of a dear, though irrational hope, with a strong sense of ill-usage.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The effect of the whole was a manner so pitying and agitated, and words intermingled with her refusal so expressive of obligation and concern, that to a temper of vanity and hope like Crawford's, the truth, or at least the strength of her indifference, might well be questionable; and he was not so irrational as Fanny considered him, in the professions of persevering, assiduous, and not desponding attachment which closed the interview.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
