irregular

See also: irregulär

English

Etymology

From Middle English irreguler, from Old French irreguler, from Medieval Latin or Late Latin irrēgulāris, from in- + regularis, equivalent to ir- +‎ regular.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪˈɹeɡ.jə.lə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

irregular (comparative more irregular, superlative most irregular)

1. nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations
   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 33:

     ‘ “It would be most irregular Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’

2. rough (of a surface)
3. without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity
   • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

     The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 100:

     Near by, where the crystal clear River Llugwy is crossed by a bridge, stands a small and ancient church built of massive, irregular boulders.

   • 2013 January 1, Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore, “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, pages 47–48:

     Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration.

   • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:

     Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.

   • 2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 58:

     The improvements will be most keenly felt across Lincolnshire, where current irregular service patterns are more a function of operational convenience than passenger demand.

4. (geometry, of a polygon) not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal
5. (geometry, of a polyhedron) whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other)
6. (grammar, of a word) not following the regular or expected patterns of inflection in a given language

   "Calves", "cacti", and "children" are irregular plurals.

   I hate learning all the irregular conjugations in French.

Synonyms

• (nonstandard): abnormal, singular; see also Thesaurus:strange
• (rough): coarse, salebrous; see also Thesaurus:rough
• (without uniformity): unstable, unsteady; see also Thesaurus:unsteady
• (not following the regular patterns of inflection): heteroclite

Antonyms

• regular

Derived terms

• irregular galaxy
• irregularity
• irregularly
• irregular prime
• irregular prism
• irregular verb
• irregular warfare
• on an irregular basis
• stereoirregular

 

Translations

non-standard

• Armenian: անկանոն (hy) (ankanon)
• Belarusian: няпра́вільны (njaprávilʹny), нестанда́ртны (njestandártny)
• Bulgarian: неправилен (bg) (nepravilen), нередовен (bg) (neredoven)
• Catalan: irregular (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無常 / 无常 (zh) (wúcháng)

• Dutch: onregelmatig (nl)
• Esperanto: neregulara
• Finnish: epäsäännöllinen (fi), säännötön (fi)
• French: irrégulier (fr)
• German: irregulär (de), unregelmäßig (de)
• Greek: ακανόνιστος (el) m (akanónistos)

  Ancient: ἀνώμαλος (anṓmalos)

• Hindi: अमानक (amānak)
• Ido: neregulala (io)
• Irish: neamhrialta
• Italian: irregolare (it)
• Japanese: 不規則な (ja) (ふきそくな, fukisoku na), 変則的な (へんそくてきな, hensokuteki ni)
• Latin: inconditus m, irrēgulāris, ēnormis
• Maori: hikuwaru
• Norman: irrédgulyi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: irregulær

  Nynorsk: irregulær

• Ottoman Turkish: قاعده‌سز (kaʿidesiz)
• Plautdietsch: onbestendich
• Polish: nieregularny (pl)
• Portuguese: irregular (pt)
• Romanian: iregular m or n, nereglementar m or n, neregulat (ro) m or n
• Russian: непра́вильный (ru) (neprávilʹnyj), нестанда́ртный (ru) (nestandártnyj)
• Spanish: irregular (es)
• Swedish: oregelbunden (sv)
• Ukrainian: непра́вильний (neprávylʹnyj), нестанда́ртний (nestandártnyj)

in grammar, applied to words

• Armenian: անկանոն (hy) (ankanon)
• Belarusian: няпра́вільны (njaprávilʹny)
• Bulgarian: неправилен (bg) (nepravilen)
• Catalan: irregular (ca)
• Czech: nepravidelný (cs) m
• Dutch: onregelmatig (nl)
• Finnish: epäsäännöllinen (fi), säännötön (fi)
• French: irrégulier (fr)
• German: unregelmäßig (de)
• Greek: ανώμαλος (el) m (anómalos)

  Ancient: ἀνώμαλος (anṓmalos)

• Hungarian: rendhagyó (hu)
• Icelandic: óreglulegur (is) m
• Irish: neamhrialta, mírialta
• Italian: irregolare (it)
• Japanese: 不規則な (ja) (ふきそくな, fukisoku na)
• Latin: anomalus m
• Norman: irrédgulyi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uregelrett

  Nynorsk: uregelrett

• Polish: nieregularny (pl)
• Portuguese: irregular (pt)
• Russian: непра́вильный (ru) (neprávilʹnyj)
• Spanish: irregular (es)
• Swedish: oregelbunden (sv)
• Ukrainian: непра́вильний (neprávylʹnyj)

lacking uniformity

• Armenian: անկանոն (hy) (ankanon)
• Bulgarian: неравномерен (bg) (neravnomeren)
• French: irrégulier (fr)
• Greek: ασύμμετρος (el) m (asýmmetros)
• Hindi: अनियमित (hi) (aniymit)
• Hungarian: rendszertelen (hu)
• Japanese: 不揃いの (ja) (ふぞろいの, fuzoroi no), 不同の (ja) (ふどうの, fudō no)
• Maori: kōiheihe, tipihori, tipirori, tipitaha, whakarangirua, kōhikohiko, whakahipahipa, karawhiti, kōngunungunu, hikuwaru, karawhiti, tōroherohe
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uregelmessig (no), uregelrett

  Nynorsk: uregelmessig, uregelrett

• Portuguese: irregular (pt), desigual (pt), assimétrico (pt)

Noun

irregular (plural irregulars)

1. A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and who may not use regular army tactics.
2. One who does not regularly attend a venue.
   • 2015, Brian Cook, Hands Across The Sea, page 190:

     There's one neighborhood tavern where the regulars and irregulars go after a hard day to unlax and rewind, throw back a few, and just hang out - you know the one.

Translations

soldier

• French: irrégulier (fr) m
• Greek: άτακτος (el) m (átaktos)

  Ancient: ἀσύντακτος m (asúntaktos)

• Ottoman Turkish: لوند (levend)

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [i.rə.ɣuˈlar]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [i.rə.ɣuˈla]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [i.re.ɣuˈlaɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ

Adjective

irregular m or f (masculine and feminine plural irregulars)

1. irregular

   Antonym: regular

Derived terms

• irregularment

Related terms

• irregularitat

Further reading

• “irregular” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “irregular”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “irregular” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “irregular” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Galician

Etymology

Attested since circa 1300. Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ireɣuˈlaɾ]

Adjective

irregular m or f (plural irregulares)

1. irregular

   Antonym: regular

Related terms

• irregularidade

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “yrregular”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “yrregular”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “irregular”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “irregular”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Further reading

• “irregular”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /i.ʁe.ɡuˈlaʁ/ [i.he.ɡuˈlah]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /i.ʁe.ɡuˈlaʁ/ [i.he.ɡuˈlah]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /i.ʁe.ɡuˈlaɾ/ [i.he.ɡuˈlaɾ]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /i.ʁe.ɡuˈlaʁ/ [i.χe.ɡuˈlaχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /i.ʁe.ɡuˈlaɻ/ [i.he.ɡuˈlaɻ]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.ʁɨ.ɡuˈlaɾ/ [i.ʁɨ.ɣuˈlaɾ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.ʁɨ.ɡuˈlaɾ/ [i.ʁɨ.ɣuˈlaɾ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.ʁɨ.ɡuˈla.ɾi/ [i.ʁɨ.ɣuˈla.ɾi]

Adjective

irregular m or f (plural irregulares)

1. irregular; nonstandard
2. (grammar) irregular (not following an inflectional paradigm)

Antonyms

• regular

Derived terms

• irregularmente

Related terms

• irregularidade

Further reading

• “irregular”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ireɡuˈlaɾ/ [i.re.ɣ̞uˈlaɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: i‧rre‧gu‧lar

Adjective

irregular m or f (masculine and feminine plural irregulares)

1. irregular, uneven, erratic, haphazard
2. patchy, spotty, jagged, ragged
3. fitful
4. (grammar) (of a verb etc.) irregular

   Antonym: regular

Derived terms

• irregularmente
• verbo irregular

 

Related terms

• irregularidad
• regular

 

Further reading

• “irregular”, 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