linear
adjective
Simple meaning
Having the form of a line.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lineeerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɪniɚ
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
Having the form of a line; straight or roughly straight; following a direct course.
Of or in or along or relating to a line; involving or having a single dimension
of a polynomial
Having degree one; that is, being of the form a_1x_1+a_2x_2+⋯+a_nx_n+b, where each x_i is a variable. See also Linear polynomials on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
of a polynomial equation
Involving only linear polynomials. See also Linear equation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
of a function between vector spaces
An additive, homogeneous mapping; that is, a function f:V→W is linear if it distributes over vector addition (f( mathbf v+ mathbf w)=f( mathbf v)+f( mathbf w)) and respects scalar multiplication (f(c mathbf v)=cf( mathbf v)). If V and W are vector spaces over a field K, f may also be called a K-linear map. See also linear map on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
of a function over a module
A module homomorphism; that is, a group homomorphism that commutes with scalar multiplication. See also Module homomorphism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having the form of a line; straight or roughly straight; following a direct course.
Used this way, linear is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use linear
- “The artist used a linear pattern in her abstract painting.”adjective
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: having the form of a line
Antonyms
Sense: having the form of a line
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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.