Rational vs Sapient - What's the difference?
rational | sapient |
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.
Possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.
* 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 217:
(chiefly, science fiction) Possessing intelligence and self-awareness.
* {{quote-magazine
, year = 1962
, date = January
, first = Henry Beam
, last = Piper
, authorlink = H. Beam Piper
, title = Naudsonce
, magazine = Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction
, volume = 68
, issue = 5
, page = 9
, passage = It was inhabited by a sapient humanoid race, and some of them were civilized enough to put it in Class V, and Colonial Office doctrine on Class V planets was rigid.
}}
(chiefly, science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.
* {{quote-book
, year = 1960
, first = Philip José
, last = Farmer
, authorlink = Philip José Farmer
, title = A Woman a Day
, page = 30
, passage = It seemed to him a possibility that the Cold War Corps of March might have contacted hitherto unknown sapients on some just discovered interstellar planet.
}}
As adjectives the difference between rational and sapient
is that rational is capable of reasoning while sapient is possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.As nouns the difference between rational and sapient
is that rational is (mathematics) a rational number: a number that can be expressed as the quotient of two integers while sapient is (chiefly|science fiction) an intelligent, self-aware being.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(en adjective)Magician’s brain, passage=The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason.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
*sapient
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- In Europe I had been told by sapient academics that there wasn't really any class system in the United States: well, you couldn't prove that by the conditions in California's agribusinesses, or indeed its urban factories.