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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



... duller-witted, perchance, and with less capacity for work, are amassing wealth under your very nose—when this is achieved by sheer luck, or good interest, or any other of those inadequate causes which get people on in life independent of talent and industry—that is what makes a radical of a man. This is what causes him to dream unwholesome dreams about equality and liberty, about a republic, where there shall be no more principalities and powers, where plutocracy, as well as aristocracy, shall be unregarded, and where ...
— Vera Nevill - Poor Wisdom's Chance • Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
... then existing. Its defects appeared almost as soon as it went into effect; and after the return of peace, it was found that the union, instead of being strengthened and perpetuated by it, could be preserved only by a radical change ...
— The Government Class Book • Andrew W. Young
... occurred. The good old king, notwithstanding that he had lived eighty-two years, had all at once given up the ghost; another king had mounted the throne; a royal duke had died suddenly; another, in France, had been murdered; there had been radical meetings in all parts of the kingdom; the bloody scenes at Manchester; the great plot in Cato Street; and, above all, the queen had returned to England! All these sinister events are recounted by Mr. Skyrme ...
— The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. • Washington Irving
... to her grandmother, Mrs. Mary Bancroft Dana, whose home was at Belpre, Ohio, upon the Ohio river, only one mile from Parkersburg, Virginia, and opposite Blennerhasset's Island. Mrs. Dana, was even then a radical on the subject of slavery, and Frances learned from her to hate the word, and all it represented. She never was on the side of the oppressor, and was frequently laughed at in childhood, for her sympathy with the poor fugitives from slavery, ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett
... fire-fighters. A point had been reached in which life and property were no longer taken into account, and efforts to restore law and order were facing complete failure. It was then that the most radical of all measures, the last resort of organized society in its resolve to defend itself, was discussed. The vigilantes, as well as the railroad men, now realized that but one measure remained for saving Medicine Bend and that was the extermination ...
— The Mountain Divide • Frank H. Spearman


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