irrational
irrational Lexical Profile
irrational Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Not logical or reasonable; governed by emotion or impulse rather than clear thought or sound judgment.
"The sudden drop in stock prices was driven by irrational panic among investors rather than economic fundamentals."
Incapable of being expressed as a ratio of two integers, and therefore having an infinite, non-repeating decimal expansion (of a real number or mathematical quantity).
"Ancient Greek mathematicians were famously troubled by the discovery that the square root of two is an irrational value."
Not endowed with the capacity for reason or logical thought.
"Classical philosophers often drew a sharp distinction between human beings and what they considered irrational beasts."
• noun
A real number that cannot be expressed as a simple fraction or ratio of two integers.
"In advanced calculus, students learn how the irrationals fill the gaps between rational numbers on the real number line."
• Rhymes for irrational
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 15th century from Latin irrationalis ('without reason'), formed from the privative prefix in- (assimilated to ir-) and rationalis ('belonging to reason'), from ratio ('reckoning, calculation, reason').