different between curious vs irregular

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English curious (“careful, meticulous; ingenious, skilful; expert, learned; concerned about (something); eager; curious, inquisitive; prying; carefully or skilfully made; exquisite, fine; sophisticated; recondite; magic or occult; absorbing, painstaking”) [and other forms], from Old French curios, curius (modern French curieux (“curious, inquisitive; interesting, quaint, unusual”)), and its etymon Latin c?ri?sus (“careful; complicated, elaborate; careworn; curious, inquisitive; meddlesome, prying”), from c?ra (“care, concern; anxiety; sorrow; attention; administration, management; command, office; guardianship”) (from Proto-Indo-European *k?eys- (“to heed”)) + -?sus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is cognate with Italian curioso (“curious, inquisitive”), Occitan curios, Portuguese curioso (“curious, inquisitive; odd, out of the ordinary”), Spanish curioso (“curious, inquisitive; interesting; odd, strange; quaint”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kj??.?i.?s/, /?kj??-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kj?.?i.?s/, /?kj?.i.?s/
• Rhymes: -???i?s
• Hyphenation: cu?ri?ous

Adjective

curious (comparative more curious or curiouser, superlative most curious or curiousest)

1. Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.

   Synonyms: enquiring, inquiring; (obsolete) exquisitive; investigative; (rare) peery

   Antonyms: incurious, noncurious, uncurious
2. Caused by curiosity.
3. Leading one to ask questions about; somewhat odd, out of the ordinary, or unusual.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:strange

   Antonym: uncurious
4. (obsolete) Careful, fastidious, particular; (specifically) demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.
5. (obsolete) Carefully or artfully constructed; made with great elegance or skill.

Usage notes

The comparative and superlative forms curiouser and curiousest are regarded as informal or nonstandard.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

curi(um) +? -ous

Adjective

curious (not comparable)

1. (chemistry, rare) Containing or pertaining to trivalent curium.

References

Further reading

• curiosity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• curious (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French irreguler, from Medieval Latin or Late Latin irr?gul?ris, from in- + regularis, equivalent to ir- +? regular.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?????j?l?/

Adjective

irregular (comparative more irregular, superlative most irregular)

1. nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations
2. (of a surface) rough
3. without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity
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

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

Translations

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.

Translations

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin irr?gul?ris.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /i.r?.?u?la/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /i.re.?u?la?/

Adjective

irregular (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.
• “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

Borrowed from Late Latin irr?gul?ris.

Adjective

irregular m or f (plural irregulares)

1. irregular

   Antonym: regular

Related terms

• irregularidade

Further reading

• “irregular” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin irr?gul?ris.

Adjective

irregular m or f (plural irregulares, comparable)

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.

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin irr?gul?ris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ire?u?la?/, [i.re.??u?la?]

Adjective

irregular (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

• verbo irregular

Related terms

• irregularidad
• regular

Further reading

• “irregular” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.