irreducible
Americanadjective
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not reducible; incapable of being reduced or of being diminished or simplified further.
the irreducible minimum.
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incapable of being brought into a different condition or form.
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Mathematics.
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of or relating to a polynomial that cannot be factored.
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of or relating to a group that cannot be written as the direct product of two of its subgroups.
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adjective
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not able to be reduced or lessened
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not able to be brought to a simpler or reduced form
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maths
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(of a polynomial) unable to be factorized into polynomials of lower degree, as ( x ² + 1)
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(of a radical) incapable of being reduced to a rational expression, as √( x + 1)
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of irreducible
Explanation
Something irreducible is as simple, basic, or straightforward as it possibly can be. How a certain person grows up to be a genius is irreducible to the sum of her experiences and genetic material — it's not that simple. And you might say that you can't generalize about your favorite poet, that her brilliant work is irreducible to such simplification. Irreducible is a big word, but it basically just means "you can't make it any simpler than this."
Vocabulary lists containing irreducible
Lead the Way: Duc and Duct
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President Obama's Speech at Hiroshima
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: duc, duct
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the future, an irreducible function of AI will certainly be to monitor how people and governments around the world are using AI to identify and interrupt antisocial projects before they come to fruition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
For so many Labour MPs, that safety net, and a passionate commitment to it, form their irreducible core.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2025
From there, officials are still confident that the remaining truly unidentified cases, which are down to an "irreducible minimum," do not constitute threats to the public.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2024
And astronomers say that, given irreducible gaps in our knowledge of ’Oumuamua, this new proposal may never be fully accepted either.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 22, 2023
At what point we reach the irreducible bottom is not easy to say.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
