Rational vs Literal - What's the difference?
rational | literal |
Capable of reasoning.
*
Logically sound; not contradictory or otherwise absurd.
(label) Healthy or balanced intellectually; exhibiting reasonableness.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Of a number, capable of being expressed as the ratio of two integers.
Of an algebraic expression, capable of being expressed as the ratio of two polynomials.
(label) Expressing the type, structure, relations, and reactions of a compound; graphic; said of formulae.
(mathematics) A rational number: a number that can be expressed as the quotient of two integers.
A rational being.
Exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.
* Hooker
Following the letter or exact words; not free; not taking liberties.
(uncommon) Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.
* Johnson
(of a person) Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative; matter-of-fact.
(programming) A value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.
(logic) A propositional variable or the negation of a propositional variable.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_%28logic%29]
As adjectives the difference between rational and literal
is that rational is capable of reasoning while literal is exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.As nouns the difference between rational and literal
is that rational is a rational number: a number that can be expressed as the quotient of two integers while literal is a value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.rational
English
Alternative forms
* rationall (obsolete)Etymology 1
From (etyl) rationel, rational, from (etyl)Adjective
(en adjective)Magician’s brain, passage=The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason. The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.}}
- ¾ is a rational number, but ?2 is an irrational number.
Antonyms
* (reasonable) absurd, irrational, nonsensical * (capable of reasoning) arational, irrational, non-rational * (number theory) irrationalEtymology 2
From (etyl) rational, from , for which see the first etymology.Noun
(en noun)- The quotient of two rationals''' is again a '''rational .
- (Young)
References
* *Anagrams
*literal
Alternative forms
* litteral (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- The literal translation is “hands full of bananas” but it means empty-handed.
- a middle course between the rigour of literal translation and the liberty of paraphrasts
- A literal reading of the law would prohibit it, but that is clearly not the intent.
- a literal equation
- The literal notation of numbers was known to Europeans before the ciphers.