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Radical   /rˈædəkəl/  /rˈædɪkəl/   Listen
adjective
Radical  adj.  
1.
Of or pertaining to the root; proceeding directly from the root.
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. "The most determined exertions of that authority, against them, only showed their radical independence."
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.
4.
(Philol.) Relating, or belonging, to the root, or ultimate source of derivation; as, a radical verbal form.
5.
(Math.) Of or pertaining to a radix or root; as, a radical quantity; a radical sign. See below.
Radical axis of two circles. (Geom.) See under Axis.
Radical pitch, the pitch or tone with which the utterance of a syllable begins.
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. To indicate any other than the square root, a corresponding figure is placed over the sign.
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.
Synonyms: Primitive; original; natural; underived; fundamental; entire. 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.


noun
Radical  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. "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."
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. "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."
3.
(Chem.)
(a)
A characteristic, essential, and fundamental constituent of any compound; hence, sometimes, an atom. "As a general rule, the metallic atoms are basic radicals, while the nonmetallic atoms are acid radicals."
(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.
4.
(Alg.) A radical quantity. See under Radical, a. "An indicated root of a perfect power of the degree indicated is not a radical but a rational quantity under a radical form."
5.
(Anat.) A radical vessel. See under Radical, a.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Radical" Quotes from Famous Books



... a Low Church bishop who had gained his mitre by temperance oratory, and what his Lordship was in the cathedral, Cooper was in the suburban drawing-rooms where radical politics and the woman's cause were discussed. When he had a brief he brought it to the library to show it; he almost lived in the library. He arrived the moment it was opened, and brought a packet of sandwiches ...
— Mike Fletcher - A Novel • George (George Augustus) Moore
... three tributaries last mentioned the waters were higher than in the flood of 1902, but the general effects were of the same nature, and consisted principally of flooded lands, houses, and washouts. There were few radical cases of complete destruction like those which marked the course of the flood in the northern tributaries. The principal interest is therefore confined to the Pompton and the three highland tributaries which discharge ...
— The Passaic Flood of 1903 • Marshall Ora Leighton
... the time he had spent or the money he had wasted. Nothing had happened that in any way equipped him for his battle with Oka Sayye. Conversely, this girl, whom he had resented, whom he had criticized, who had claimed his notice only by her radical difference from the other girls, had managed, during the few minutes he had first talked with her in the hall, to wound his pride, to spur his ambition, to start him on a course that must end in lasting and material benefit to him even if he failed in making a higher record of scholarship ...
— Her Father's Daughter • Gene Stratton-Porter
... morality," said Sidney. "That chimera of meaningless virtue which the Hebrew has brought into the world is the last monster left to slay. The Hebrew view of life is too one-sided. The Bible is a literature without a laugh in it. Even Raphael thinks the great Radical of Galilee carried spirituality ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... three parties. Opponents were ranged against each other in the mother country, in the Thirteen Colonies, and in Canada. In the mother country the king and his party government were ranged against the Opposition and all who held radical or revolutionary views. Here the strife was merely political. But in the Thirteen Colonies the forces of the Crown were ranged against the forces of the new Continental Congress. The small minority of colonists who were afterwards known as the United Empire ...
— The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle of Carleton • William Wood


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