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Irregular vs Phenomenon - What's the difference?

irregular | phenomenon |

As an adjective irregular

is irregular.

As a noun phenomenon is

an observable fact or occurrence or a kind of observable fact or occurrence.

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.
  • phenomenon

    Alternative forms

    * phaenomenon, (archaic) * phainomenon * (qualifier)

    Noun

    (phenomena)
  • An observable fact or occurrence or a kind of observable fact or occurrence.
  • * 1900 , , The Making of Religion , ch. 1:
  • The Indians, making a hasty inference from a trivial phenomenon , arrived unawares at a probably correct conclusion.
  • * 2007 , " Ask the Experts: Hurricanes," USA Today , 7 Nov. (retrieved 16 Jan. 2009):
  • Hurricanes are a meteorological phenomenon .
  • Appearance; a perceptible aspect of something that is mutable.
  • * 1662 , Thomas Salusbury (translator), Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World , First Day:
  • I verily believe that in the Moon there are no rains, for if Clouds should gather in any part thereof, as they do about the Earth, they would thereupon hide from our sight some of those things, which we with the Telescope behold in the Moon, and in a word, would some way or other change its Phœnomenon .
  • A fact or event considered very unusual, curious, or astonishing by those who witness it.
  • * 1816 , , The Antiquary—Volume I , ch. 18:
  • The phenomenon of a huge blazing fire, upon the opposite bank of the glen, again presented itself to the eye of the watchman. . . . He resolved to examine more nearly the object of his wonder.
  • A wonderful or very remarkable person or thing.
  • * 1839 , , Nicholas Nickleby , ch. 23:
  • "This, sir," said Mr Vincent Crummles, bringing the maiden forward, "this is the infant phenomenon —Miss Ninetta Crummles."
  • * 1888 , , "The Phantom Rickshaw":
  • But, all the same, you're a phenomenon', and as queer a ' phenomenon as you are a blackguard.
  • An experienced object whose constitution reflects the order and conceptual structure imposed upon it by the human mind (especially by the powers of perception and understanding).
  • * 1900 , , "Comparison of Some Views of Spencer and Kant," Mind , vol. 9, no. 34, p. 234:
  • Every "phenomenon " must be, at any rate, partly subjective or dependent on the subject.
  • * 1912 , , "Is There a Cognitive Relation?" The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods , vol. 9, no. 9, p. 232:
  • The Kantian phenomenon is the real as we are compelled to think it.

    Usage notes

    * The universal, common, modern spelling of this term is (term). Of the , phaenomenon, ,). * By far the most common and universally accepted plural form is the classical phenomena; the Anglicised phenomenons is also sometimes used. The plural form (term) is frequently misused in the singular. Arising from this misuse, the double plurals phenomenas and phenomenae, as well as a form employing the greengrocer’s apostrophe — — are seen in non-standard use; they are erroneous.

    Synonyms

    * (observable fact or occurrence) event * marvel, miracle, oddity, wonder * (wonderful person or thing) marvel, miracle, phenom, prodigy, wonder

    Antonyms

    * noumenon, thing-in-itself

    Derived terms

    * phenom