Irregular vs Rare - What's the difference?
irregular | rare | Related terms |
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= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01-01, author=Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore
, volume=101, issue=1, page=47–48, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=
, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= 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).
A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics.
(cooking, particularly meats) Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense).
* Dryden
Very uncommon; scarce.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= (label) Thin; of low density.
(US) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
* 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 328:
(US) To rear, bring up, raise.
(obsolete) early
* Chapman
Irregular is a related term of rare.
As adjectives the difference between irregular and rare
is that irregular is irregular while rare is (cooking|particularly meats) cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense) or rare can be very uncommon; scarce or rare can be (obsolete) early.As a verb rare is
(us|intransitive) to rear, rise up, start backwards.irregular
English
(wikipedia irregular)Adjective
(en adjective)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.}}
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.}}
Ian Sample
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.}}
Antonyms
* regularDerived terms
* irregular plural * irregular verbNoun
(en noun)rare
English
Etymology 1
From a dialectal variant of rear, from (etyl) rere, from (etyl) . More at (l).Alternative forms
* (l), (l) (UK)Adjective
(en-adj)- New-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care / Turned by a gentle fire, and roasted rare .
Synonyms
* (cooked very lightly) sanguinaryAntonyms
* (cooked very lightly) well doneDerived terms
* medium-rareEtymology 2
From (etyl) rare, from (etyl) rare, .Adjective
(er)David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
Wild Plants to the Rescue, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
Synonyms
* (very uncommon) scarce, selcouth, seld, seldsome, selly, geason, uncommonAntonyms
* (very uncommon) commonDerived terms
* rare bird * rare earth mineralEtymology 3
Variant of rear .Verb
(rar)- Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
Usage notes
* (rft-sense) Principal current, non-literary use is of the present participle raring' with a verb in "'''raring''' to". The principal verb in that construction is ''go''. Thus, '''''raring''' to go'' ("eager (to start something)") is the expression in which '''''rare is most often encountered as a verb.Etymology 4
Compare rather, rath.Adjective
(en adjective)- Rude mechanicals that rare and late / Work in the market place.
