fractal

English

WOTD – 18 October 2010

A Julia set fractal

Etymology

From French fractal, from Latin fractus (“broken”), perfect passive participle of frangō (“break, fragment”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹæk.təl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æktəl

Noun

fractal (plural fractals)

1. (mathematics) A mathematical set that has a non-integer and constant Hausdorff dimension, corresponding to a geometric figure or object that is self-similar at arbitrarily small scales and thus has infinite complexity.
2. (by extension) An object, system, or idea that exhibits a fractal-like property, such as the property of self-similarity at numerous but not infinitely many scales.
   • 1999, John J. McGonagle, Carolyn M. Vella, The Internet Age of Competitive Intelligence, →ISBN:

     In essence, you are assuming that each segment of a company is a fractal of the whole […]

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:fractal

Derived terms

• curlicue fractal
• fractal dimension
• fractalesque
• ice fractal
• multifractal

 

Translations

mathematical figure that is self-similar at all scales

• Armenian: ֆրակտալ (fraktal)
• Catalan: fractal (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分形 (zh) (fēnxíng), 碎形 (suìxíng), 殘形 / 残形 (cánxíng)

• Czech: fraktál (cs) m
• Finnish: fraktaali (fi)
• French: fractal (fr) m, fractale (fr) m
• German: Fraktal (de) n
• Greek: μορφόκλασμα n (morfóklasma)
• Hungarian: fraktál (hu)
• Italian: frattale (it) m
• Japanese: フラクタル (furakutaru)
• Korean: 프랙탈 (peuraektal)
• Macedonian: фракта́л m (fraktál)
• Norwegian: fraktal m
• Polish: fraktal (pl) m
• Portuguese: fractal m
• Russian: фрактал (ru) m (fraktal)
• Spanish: fractal (es) m
• Swedish: fraktal (sv) c

anything exhibiting self-similarity at many scales

• Catalan: fractal (ca) m
• Czech: fraktál (cs) m
• Esperanto: fraktalo
• Finnish: fraktaali (fi)
• German: Fraktal (de) n
• Greek: μορφόκλασμα n (morfóklasma)
• Hungarian: fraktál (hu)
• Italian: frattale (it) m
• Macedonian: фракта́л m (fraktál)
• Norwegian: fraktal m
• Portuguese: fractal m or f
• Spanish: fractal (es) m
• Swedish: fraktal (sv) c

Adjective

Romanesco, a vegetable related to broccoli and cauliflower made up of mini-spirals in fractal formation

fractal (not comparable)

1. (mathematics) Having the form of a fractal; having to do with fractals.
   • 2015 January 26, Mark Diacono, “How to grow and cook cauliflower, 2015's trendiest veg: Tricky to grow, boring to boil ... so why is the outmoded cauliflower back at the culinary cutting edge? [print version: Cauliflower power, 24 January 2015, pp. G1 & G3]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎^[1]:

     Romanesco was my gateway cauli and I've never stopped growing it. Not a variety as much as its own thing, Romanesco is a cauliflower to the French, a calabrese to the Italians. […] Visually, it may be the most remarkable thing you can grow: it is made up of lime-green mini-spirals that coil around themselves in fractal formation.

2. (by extension, sometimes figurative) Exhibiting a fractal-like property.
   • 2007, Vincent Spina, “Three Central American writers: alone between two cultures”, in Carlota Caulfield, Darién J. Davis, editors, Companion to United States Latino Literatures, →ISBN:

     A fractal situation emerges in this way then: the consequences of Ulysses' decision to abandon Calypso are not entirely predictable.

   • 2020, Frank E. Zachos, Les Christidis, Stephen Garnett, “The Tree of Life, however, is an encaptic system displaying a nested hierarchy with a fractal pattern (lineages within lineages).”, in Mammalia, volume 84, number 1, page 2:

Derived terms

• fractal antenna
• fractal dimension
• fractal response time

Translations

having the form of a fractal

• Catalan: fractal (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分形的 (fēnxíngdē)

• Czech: fraktální
• Finnish: fraktaalinen (fi)
• French: fractal (fr)
• German: fraktal (de)
• Greek: μορφοκλασματικός (el) m (morfoklasmatikós)
• Italian: frattale (it)
• Norwegian: fraktal
• Polish: fraktalny (pl) m
• Romanian: fractal
• Russian: фрактальный (ru) (fraktalʹnyj)
• Spanish: fractal (es)

See also

• fractal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Mandelbrot set
• Julia set

Anagrams

• flatcar

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [fɾəkˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [fɾakˈtal]
• Rhymes: -al

Noun

fractal f (plural fractals)

1. fractal

Adjective

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractals)

1. fractal

French

Etymology

Coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975, from Latin fractus +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁak.tal/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

fractal (feminine fractale, masculine plural fractals or fractaux, feminine plural fractales)

1. fractal

Noun

fractal m (plural fractals or fractaux)

1. (rare) Synonym of fractale

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• fratal (Portugal, nonstandard)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯], /fɾa.kiˈtaw/ [fɾa.kiˈtaʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯], /fɾa.kiˈtaw/ [fɾa.kiˈtaʊ̯]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɾaˈktal/ [fɾaˈktaɫ], /fɾaˈtal/ [fɾaˈtaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɾaˈktal/ [fɾaˈktaɫ], /fɾaˈtal/ [fɾaˈtaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɾaˈkta.li/, /fɾaˈta.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: frac‧tal

Noun

fractal m (plural fractais)

1. (mathematics) fractal (self-similar geometric figure)

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɾaɡˈtal/ [fɾaɣ̞ˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: frac‧tal

Noun

fractal m (plural fractales)

1. fractal

Adjective

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractales)

1. fractal

Further reading

• “fractal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10