Radical

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Radical \Rad"i*cal\ (r[a^]d"[i^]*kal), a. [F., fr. L. radicalis
     having roots, fr. radix, -icis, a root. See {Radix}.]
     1. Of or pertaining to the root; proceeding directly from the
        root.
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     2. Hence: Of or pertaining to the root or origin; reaching to
        the center, to the foundation, to the ultimate sources, to
        the principles, or the like; original; fundamental;
        thorough-going; unsparing; extreme; as, radical evils;
        radical reform; a radical party.
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              The most determined exertions of that authority,
              against them, only showed their radical
              independence.                         --Burke.
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     3. (Bot.)
        (a) Belonging to, or proceeding from, the root of a plant;
            as, radical tubers or hairs.
        (b) Proceeding from a rootlike stem, or one which does not
            rise above the ground; as, the radical leaves of the
            dandelion and the sidesaddle flower.
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     4. (Philol.) Relating, or belonging, to the root, or ultimate
        source of derivation; as, a radical verbal form.
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     5. (Math.) Of or pertaining to a radix or root; as, a radical
        quantity; a radical sign. See below.
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     {Radical axis of two circles}. (Geom.) See under {Axis}.
  
     {Radical pitch}, the pitch or tone with which the utterance
        of a syllable begins. --Rush.
  
     {Radical quantity} (Alg.), a quantity to which the radical
        sign is prefixed; specifically, a quantity which is not a
        perfect power of the degree indicated by the radical sign;
        a surd.
  
     {Radical sign} (Math.), the sign [root] (originally the
        letter r, the initial of radix, root), placed before any
        quantity, denoting that its root is to be extracted; thus,
        [root]a, or [root](a + b). To indicate any other than the
        square root, a corresponding figure is placed over the
        sign; thus, [cuberoot]a, indicates the third or cube root
        of a.
  
     {Radical stress} (Elocution), force of utterance falling on
        the initial part of a syllable or sound.
  
     {Radical vessels} (Anat.), minute vessels which originate in
        the substance of the tissues.
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     Syn: Primitive; original; natural; underived; fundamental;
          entire.
  
     Usage: {Radical}, {Entire}. These words are frequently
            employed as interchangeable in describing some marked
            alteration in the condition of things. There is,
            however, an obvious difference between them. A radical
            cure, reform, etc., is one which goes to the root of
            the thing in question; and it is entire, in the sense
            that, by affecting the root, it affects in an
            appropriate degree the entire body nourished by the
            root; but it may not be entire in the sense of making
            a change complete in its nature, as well as in its
            extent. Hence, we speak of a radical change; a radical
            improvement; radical differences of opinion; while an
            entire change, an entire improvement, an entire
            difference of opinion, might indicate more than was
            actually intended. A certain change may be both
            radical and entire, in every sense.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Radical \Rad"i*cal\ (r[a^]d"[i^]*kal), n.
     1. (Philol.)
        (a) A primitive word; a radix, root, or simple, underived,
            uncompounded word; an etymon.
        (b) A primitive letter; a letter that belongs to the
            radix.
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                  The words we at present make use of, and
                  understand only by common agreement, assume a
                  new air and life in the understanding, when you
                  trace them to their radicals, where you find
                  every word strongly stamped with nature; full of
                  energy, meaning, character, painting, and
                  poetry.                           --Cleland.
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     2. (Politics) One who advocates radical changes in government
        or social institutions, especially such changes as are
        intended to level class inequalities; -- opposed to
        conservative.
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              In politics they [the Independents] were, to use the
              phrase of their own time, "Root-and-Branch men," or,
              to use the kindred phrase of our own, Radicals.
                                                    --Macaulay.
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     3. (Chem.)
        (a) A characteristic, essential, and fundamental
            constituent of any compound; hence, sometimes, an
            atom.
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                  As a general rule, the metallic atoms are basic
                  radicals, while the nonmetallic atoms are acid
                  radicals.                         --J. P. Cooke.
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        (b) Specifically, a group of two or more atoms, not
            completely saturated, which are so linked that their
            union implies certain properties, and are conveniently
            regarded as playing the part of a single atom; a
            residue; -- called also a {compound radical}. Cf.
            {Residue}.
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     4. (Alg.) A radical quantity. See under {Radical}, a.
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              An indicated root of a perfect power of the degree
              indicated is not a radical but a rational quantity
              under a radical form.                 --Davies &
                                                    Peck (Math.
                                                    Dict.)
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     5. (Anat.) A radical vessel. See under {Radical}, a.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Residue \Res"i*due\ (r?z"?-d?), n. [F. r['e]sidu, L. residuum,
     fr. residuus that is left behind, remaining, fr. residere to
     remain behind. See {Reside}, and cf. {Residuum}.]
     1. That which remains after a part is taken, separated,
        removed, or designated; remnant; remainder.
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              The residue of them will I deliver to the sword.
                                                    --Jer. xv. 9.
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              If church power had then prevailed over its victims,
              not a residue of English liberty would have been
              saved.                                --I. Taylor.
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     2. (Law) That part of a testeator's estate wwhich is not
        disposed of in his will by particular and special legacies
        and devises, and which remains after payment of debts and
        legacies.
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     3. (Chem.) That which remains of a molecule after the removal
        of a portion of its constituents; hence, an atom or group
        regarded as a portion of a molecule; a {moiety} or
        {group}; -- used as nearly equivalent to {radical}, but in
        a more general sense.
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     Note: The term radical is sometimes restricted to groups
           containing carbon, the term residue and {moiety} being
           applied to the others.
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     4. (Theory of Numbers) Any positive or negative number that
        differs from a given number by a multiple of a given
        modulus; thus, if 7 is the modulus, and 9 the given
        number, the numbers -5, 2, 16, 23, etc., are residues.
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     Syn: Rest; remainder; remnant; balance; residuum; remains;
          leavings; relics.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  radical
       adj 1: (used of opinions and actions) far beyond the norm;
              "extremist political views"; "radical opinions on
              education"; "an ultra conservative" [syn: {extremist},
               {ultra}]
       2: markedly new or introducing radical change; "a revolutionary
          discovery"; "radical political views" [syn: {revolutionary}]
       3: arising from or going to the root; "a radical flaw in the
          plan"
       4: of or relating to or constituting a linguistic root; "a
          radical verb form"
       5: especially of leaves; located at the base of a plant or
          stem; especially arising directly from the root or
          rootstock or a root-like stem; "basal placentation";
          "radical leaves" [syn: {basal}] [ant: {cauline}]
       n 1: (chemistry) two or more atoms bound together as a single
            unit and forming part of a molecule [syn: {group}, {chemical
            group}]
       2: an atom or group of atoms with at least one unpaired
          electron; in the body it is usually an oxygen molecule
          than has lost an electron and will stabilize itself by
          stealing an electron from a nearby molecule; "in the body
          free radicals are high-energy particles that ricochet
          wildly and damage cells" [syn: {free radical}]
       3: a person who has radical ideas or opinions
       4: a character conveying the lexical meaning of a logogram
       5: a sign placed in front of an expression to denote that a
          root is to be extracted [syn: {radical sign}]
       6: (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are
          removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" [syn: {root},
           {root word}, {base}, {stem}, {theme}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  429 Moby Thesaurus words for "radical":
     Bolshevik, Bolshevist, Fabian, Gospel side, IC analysis, Jacobin,
     Kekule formula, Wobbly, ab ovo, aboriginal, absolute, accidence,
     acid, acidity, advanced, affix, affixation, agent, agitator,
     algorismic, algorithmic, aliquot, alkali, alkalinity,
     all-embracing, all-encompassing, all-inclusive, all-out,
     all-pervading, alloisomer, allomorph, anarchist, anarchistic,
     anarcho-syndicalist, anion, antacid, arrowhead, at the height,
     at the limit, atom, atomic cluster, basal, base, basement, basic,
     basilar, basis, bearing wall, bed, bedding, bedrock, beginning,
     benzene ring, biochemical, born, bottom, bound morpheme,
     branched chain, broad, broad-based, broad-minded, cantorial side,
     cardinal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, cation, central, chain,
     character, chemical, chemical element, chromoisomer, clean, clear,
     closed chain, commencement, communist, complete, compound,
     compound radical, comprehensive, conception, congenital,
     conjugation, constituent, constitutional, constitutive, consummate,
     copolymer, corrective, counterclockwise, crucial, cuneiform,
     cutting, cycle, decimal, declension, deep, deep-dyed, deep-seated,
     demotic character, derivation, determinative, difference of form,
     differential, digital, dimer, downright, drastic, dyad,
     dyed-in-the-wool, egregious, element, elemental, elementary,
     embryonic, emendatory, enclitic, entire, essential, even,
     exhaustive, exponential, extreme, extreme left-winger, extremist,
     extremistic, fanatic, fanatical, far out, figural, figurate,
     figurative, finite, floor, flooring, fond, footing, formative,
     foundation, foundational, fractional, free form, fundament,
     fundamental, furthest, generative, genesis, genetic, germinal,
     gradualistic, grammalogue, grass roots, greatest, ground, grounds,
     groundwork, gut, hardpan, head, heavy chemicals, heptad,
     heterocycle, hexad, hieratic symbol, hieroglyph, hieroglyphic,
     hieroglyphics, high polymer, hiragana, homocycle, homopolymer,
     hydracid, ideogram, ideograph, imaginary,
     immediate constituent analysis, immoderate, impair, impossible,
     in embryo, in ovo, inception, infinite, infix, infixation,
     inflection, inherent, inorganic chemical, insurgent,
     insurrectionary, insurrectionist, integral, intensive, intrinsic,
     ion, irrational, isomer, kana, katakana, larboard, lattice, left,
     left hand, left wing, left-hand, left-hand side, left-wing,
     left-wing extremist, left-winger, left-wingish, leftist,
     levorotatory, liberal, logarithmic, logogram, logograph,
     logometric, lunatic fringe, macromolecule, material, meliorist,
     melioristic, metamer, mild radical, mildly radical, militant,
     molecule, monad, monomer, morph, morpheme, morphemic analysis,
     morphemics, morphology, morphophonemics, most, natural, near,
     near side, negative, neutralizer, nigh, nihilist, nihilistic,
     nonacid, numeral, numerary, numerative, numeric, octad, odd,
     of the essence, ogham, omnibus, omnipresent, ordinal, organic,
     organic chemical, origin, original, origination, out-and-out,
     outright, oxyacid, pair, paradigm, parlor Bolshevik, parlor pink,
     pavement, pentad, perfect, pervasive, phonetic, phonetic symbol,
     pictogram, pictograph, pink, pinko, plain, plumb, polymer, port,
     port tack, portside, positive, possible, prefix, prefixation,
     pregnant, primal, primary, prime, primeval, primitive, primordial,
     principal, principle, pristine, proclitic, profound,
     progressionist, progressist, progressive, progressivist,
     protogenic, provenience, pseudoisomer, pure, rabid, radix,
     rational, reagent, rebel, reciprocal, red, reformational,
     reformative, reformatory, reformer, reformist, reformistic,
     regular, revisional, revisionist, revisory, revolutional,
     revolutionary, revolutionist, revulsionary, revulsive, ring,
     riprap, rise, rock bottom, root, rudiment, rudimentary, rune,
     sans-culotte, seat, secessionist, seminal, separatist, severe,
     sheer, shorthand, side chain, sill, simple radical, sinister,
     sinistral, sinistrocerebral, sinistrocular, sinistrogyrate,
     sinistrorse, solid ground, solid rock, source, space-lattice, stem,
     stereobate, stock, straight, straight chain, stylobate,
     submultiple, substantial, substantive, substratum, substruction,
     substructure, subversive, suffix, suffixation, sulfacid, surd,
     sweeping, syndicalist, taproot, terra firma, tetrad, theme,
     thorough, thoroughgoing, through-and-through, tolerant, too much,
     total, transcendental, transilient, triad, trimer, ubiquitous,
     ultra, ultra-ultra, ultraconservative, ultraist, ultraistic,
     unconditional, underbuilding, undercarriage, undergirding,
     underlying, underpinning, understruction, understructure,
     universal, unmitigated, unqualified, unreserved, unrestricted,
     utmost, utopian, utopist, utter, uttermost, veritable, verso,
     vital, way out, wedge, wholesale, wide, word letter,
     word-formation, wrong side, yippie, zealot