functional
adjective
Simple meaning
Practical and useful, serving its intended purpose well
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fuhngkshuhnuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfʌŋkʃənəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Useful; serving a purpose, fulfilling a function.
Only for functional purposes, notably in architecture.
In good working order.
Of or relating to one's role or office; official.
Optimized for all-around physiological benefit.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
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More ways to use functional
- “A style of writing in which every word is functional.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
That is or are functioning.
Functioning and ready for use.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The study of anatomy in its relation to function.
A system of symbolic logic that represents individuals and predicates and quantification over individuals (as well as the relations between propositions).
Disorder showing symptoms for which no physiological or anatomical cause can be identified.
The branch of genomics that determines the biological function of the genes and their products.
A person with some ability to read and write but not enough for daily practical needs.
A form of magnetic resonance imaging of the brain that registers blood flow to functioning areas of the brain.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: useful
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.