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Irregular vs Spurious - What's the difference?

irregular | spurious | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between irregular and spurious

is that irregular is nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations while spurious is false, not authentic, not genuine.

As a noun irregular

is a soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics.

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.
  • spurious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • false, not authentic, not genuine
  • * 2013 , Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems''' (in ''The Guardian , 13 September 2013)[http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/13/russell-brand-gq-awards-hugo-boss]
  • We witness that there is a relationship between government, media and industry that is evident even at this most spurious and superficial level. These three institutions support one another. We know that however cool a media outlet may purport to be, their primary loyalty is to their corporate backers. We know also that you cannot criticise the corporate backers openly without censorship and subsequent manipulation of this information.
  • (archaic) bastardly, illegitimate
  • * Milton
  • her spurious firstborn

    Synonyms

    * (false) counterfeit, fake, false, bogus * See also * See also

    Antonyms

    * (false) genuine, representative

    Derived terms

    * spuriously * spuriousness