transcendental function

American  

noun

Mathematics.

1. a function that is not an algebraic function.

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transcendental function British  

noun

1. maths a function that is not capable of expression in terms of a finite number of arithmetical operations, such as sin x

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Etymology

Origin of transcendental function

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

The imagination is therefore also a power of a priori synthesis, for which reason we give it the name of the productive imagination; and so far as it, in relation to all the manifold of the phenomenon, has no further aim than the necessary unity in the synthesis of the phenomenon, it can be called the transcendental function of the imagination.

From Project Gutenberg

It must be a high degree subcatenary or else built on a transcendental function.”

From Project Gutenberg