functional
capable of operating or functioning: When will the ventilating system be functional again?
having or serving a utilitarian purpose; capable of serving the purpose for which it was designed: functional architecture; a chair that is functional as well as decorative.
Also func·tion·al·is·tic. (of a building or furnishing) constructed or made according to the principles of functionalism or primarily as a direct fulfillment of a material need.
Medicine/Medical. without a known organic cause or structural change: a functional disorder.: Compare organic (def. 5).
pertaining to an algebraic operation: a functional symbol.
Linguistics. (of linguistic analysis, language teaching, etc.) concerned with the communicative role of language rather than, in addition to, or as the framework for its formal structure.
Origin of functional
1Other words from functional
- func·tion·al·i·ty, noun
- func·tion·al·ly, adverb
- hy·per·func·tion·al, adjective
- hy·per·func·tion·al·ly, adverb
- mul·ti·func·tion·al, adjective
- non·func·tion·al, adjective
- non·func·tion·al·ly, adverb
- pre·func·tion·al, adjective
- sem·i·func·tion·al, adjective
- sem·i·func·tion·al·ly, adverb
- sub·func·tion·al, adjective
- sub·func·tion·al·ly, adverb
- su·per·func·tion·al, adjective
- un·func·tion·al, adjective
- un·func·tion·al·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use functional in a sentence
The designers will have to find a way to make their SSD both functional and durable, she says.
This artificial skin feels ‘ghosts’ — things you wish were there | Stephen Ornes | November 20, 2020 | Science News For StudentsAs the Wizards progress through their retooling effort, Westbrook’s high-usage style could limit Beal’s effectiveness and make it difficult to build functional team chemistry.
NBA free agency tracker (plus trades): Warriors acquire Kelly Oubre; 76ers trade Al Horford to Thunder | Ben Golliver | November 20, 2020 | Washington PostFirst time I see an example, or first time I read a new policy, I want to be able to build a classifier that’s functional at, you know, at billion user scale.
EmTech Stage: Facebook’s CTO on misinformation | Tate Ryan-Mosley | November 18, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewIt’s all the people that you spend time training and working with so that you can have a functional restaurant with a functional team.
The True Cost of Keeping a Restaurant Open During a Pandemic | Charlotte Druckman | November 11, 2020 | EaterWe have, since day one, been working every day to do what’s necessary to provide functional representation to Maine’s indigent population.
Maine Governor Won’t Fund Reforms for Public Defense Agency Without Accountability | by Samantha Hogan, The Maine Monitor | November 11, 2020 | ProPublica
There is no difference, functionally or stylistically, between the two campaigns.
Glenn Beck Is Now Selling Hipster Clothes. Really. | Ana Marie Cox | December 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBy the late summer, AIG was functionally bankrupt—unable to meet financial obligations or raise new cash.
Remember the $182 Billion AIG Bailout? It Just Wasn’t Generous Enough | Daniel Gross | October 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe problem is that Mississippi has long operated as a state that functionally had an open primary.
The National Research Council reports that NASA has functionally thrown in the towel on a manned mission to Mars.
In truth, the original organization functionally folded a year ago, The Daily Beast has learned.
Inside the Implosion of GOProud, the Right’s Most Notorious Pro-Gay Group | Tim Mak | June 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the vast majority of modern girls and women, the reproductive organs are structurally immature or functionally defective.
Feminism and Sex-Extinction | Arabella KenealyAs in animal and plant life, so in mechanics—the higher the organism functionally the more complex it becomes physically.
Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy, Vol. 2 | Kempster MillerIn such expressions as "An honest man's the noblest work of God," the subject is functionally a collective name.
Logic, Inductive and Deductive | William MintoIts cells are functionally agitated, and doubtless act by a reflex impulsion on the motor nerves.
The Arena | VariousThe possession by male mammals of functionally imperfect mammary organs is, in some respects, especially curious.
British Dictionary definitions for functional
/ (ˈfʌŋkʃənəl) /
of, involving, or containing a function or functions
practical rather than decorative; utilitarian: functional architecture
capable of functioning; working
med affecting a function of an organ without structural change
psychol
relating to the purpose or context of a behaviour
denoting a psychosis such as schizophrenia assumed not to have a direct organic cause, like deterioration or poisoning of the brain: Compare organic psychosis
maths a function whose domain is a set of functions and whose range is a set of functions or a set of numbers
Derived forms of functional
- functionally, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for functional
[ fŭngk′shə-nəl ]
Affecting bodily functions but not organic structure, as a disorder such as irritable bowel syndrome. Compare organic.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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