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Irregular vs Periodic - What's the difference?

irregular | periodic | Related terms |

Irregular is a related term of periodic.


As an adjective irregular

is irregular.

As a noun periodic is

newspaper.

irregular

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year = 1967 , first = Barbara , last = Sleigh , authorlink = Barbara Sleigh , title = (Jessamy) , edition = 1993 , location = Sevenoaks, Kent , publisher=Bloomsbury , isbn = 0 340 19547 9 , page = 33 , url = , passage = ‘ “It would be most irregular' Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty ' irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’ }}
  • Of a surface, rough.
  • Without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
  • , title= The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01-01, author=Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore
  • , volume=101, issue=1, page=47–48, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight , passage=Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus ) undergo an irregular , nomadic type of nocturnal migration.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
  • Not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal.
  • Whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other).
  • Antonyms

    * regular

    Derived terms

    * irregular plural * irregular verb

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics.
  • periodic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * periodick (obsolete)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Relative to a period or periods.
  • Having repeated cycles.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
  • , title=, chapter=1 , passage=There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”}}
  • Occurring at regular intervals.
  • Periodical.
  • (label) Pertaining to the revolution of a celestial object in its orbit.
  • For which any return to it must occur in multiples of k time steps, for some k>1.
  • (label) Having a structure characterized by periodic sentences.
  • (label) Relating to, derived from, or designating, the highest oxygen acid (HIO) of iodine.
  • Antonyms
    * (astronomy) non-periodic * (mathematics) aperiodic
    Derived terms
    (terms derived from periodic) * periodic classification * periodic function * periodic law * periodic system * periodic table

    Etymology 2

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of or derived from a periodic acid.
  • Derived terms
    * periodate * periodic acid English heteronyms ----