surd

American  

[surd] / sɜrd /

adjective

1. Phonetics. voiceless (opposed to sonant).

2. Mathematics. (of a quantity) not capable of being expressed in rational numbers; irrational.

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noun

1. Phonetics. a voiceless consonant (opposed to sonant).

2. Mathematics. a surd quantity.

surd British  

/ sɜːd /

noun

1. maths an expression containing one or more irrational roots of numbers, such as 2√3 + 3√2 + 6

2. phonetics a voiceless consonant, such as ( t )

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adjective

1. of or relating to a surd

Etymology

Origin of surd

First recorded in 1545–55, surd is from the Latin word surdus dull-sounding, mute, deaf

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

surd

It offers private, group and corporate surf lessons, as well as an after-school program, surd camps and rentals, according to its website.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 12, 2021

I will avoid equations, And shun the naughty surd, I must beware the perfect square, Through it young girls have erred: And when men mention Rule of Three Pretend I have not heard.

From Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times by Alice Duer Miller

Just the same, two and two always make four," he said to himself; "but in my calculations perhaps I have forgotten the surd.

From The Secret of the Night by Gaston Leroux

Adj. numeral, complementary, divisible, aliquot, reciprocal, prime, relatively prime, fractional, decimal, figurate†, incommensurable. proportional, exponential, logarithmic, logometric†, differential, fluxional†, integral, totitive†. positive, negative; rational, irrational; surd, radical, real; complex, imaginary; finite; infinite; impossible.

From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Peter Mark Roget

A surd is a radical whose meaning cannot be exactly ascertained.

From The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C. L. Dodgson) by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood

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