Dictionary Definition
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]
Noun
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]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
Latin radicalis.Pronunciation
- , /ˈɹædɪkəl/, /"r} Involving free radicals
Extensive Definition
Radical (from Latin radicis,
genitive of radix "root") can refer to many different things and
concepts.
Mathematics
- The symbol used to indicate the nth root of a number
- Radical of an algebraic group, a concept in algebraic group theory
- Radical of an ideal, an important concept in abstract algebra
- Radical of an integer, a concept in number theory
- Symmetric bilinear form, a concept in linear algebra
- Radical of a Lie algebra, a concept in Lie theory
Chemistry
- Radical (chemistry) or free radical, atomic or molecular species with unpaired electrons
Linguistics
- Radical consonant, which involves the root of the tongue
- Radical (Chinese character), part of a Chinese character
- One of the three consonants in a Semitic trilateral or quadrilateral root
Society
- Political
radicalism
- Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement which began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century
- Radical left, another term for the far left
- Radical right, another term for the far right
- Extremism, political standpoints that are perceived as revolutionary or extreme
- Radical Whigs, influential early writers on Radicalism
- Radical Republican (USA), a member of an influential group of American politicians during the Civil War reconstruction
- Radical Party, a political party
- Radicals (UK), parliamentary progressives who were part of the nineteenth-century Liberal coalition
- Industrial Radicals, members of the fictional Industrial Radical Party
- Religious radicalism
Businesses and organizations
- Radical Sportscars, an English sports car maker
- Radical Entertainment, a video game developer based in Vancouver, Canada
- Free Radical Design, a video game developer based in Nottingham, England
- Free Radicals (band), a jazz-funk musical group from Houston, TX
- Radical Matters, a record label
- Free Radical Centre
Music albums
- Radical (Smack album), Smack's fourth studio album, released in 1988
Other
- In cabinet making, another way of saying external plinth
- Radical Baroque, in architecture
radical in Catalan:
Radical
radical in German:
Radikal
radical in Spanish:
Radical
radical in French:
Radical
radical in Ido:
Radiko
radical in Italian:
Radicale
radical in Dutch:
Radicaal
radical in Japanese:
ラジカル
radical in Norwegian:
Radikal
radical in Portuguese:
Radical
radical in Romanian:
Radical
radical in Russian:
Радикал
radical in Slovenian:
Radikal
radical in Finnish:
Radikaali
radical in Swedish:
Radikal
radical in Chinese:
基
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
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