different between unintelligible vs irrational

English

Etymology

un- +? intelligible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n?n?t?l?d??b?l/

Adjective

unintelligible (comparative more unintelligible, superlative most unintelligible)

1. Not intelligible; unable to be understood.
   • 1697, John Locke, Letter to the Bishop of Worcester (second reply):

     And indeed, my lord, there are so many passages in your writing in this controversy with me, which for their construction, as well as otherwise, are so unintelligible to me, that if I should be so unmannerly as to measure your understanding by mine, I should not know what to think of them.

Synonyms

• inscrutable, unexplainable; See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

Antonyms

• intelligible; See also Thesaurus:comprehensible

Translations

See also

• incomprehensible
• unfathomable
• fathomless

English

Etymology

From Latin irrati?n?lis, from ir- + rati?n?lis.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?r?'sh(?)n?l, IPA^(key): /???æ?.(?.)n?l/

Adjective

irrational (comparative more irrational, superlative most irrational)

1. Not rational; unfounded or nonsensical.
   • July 18, 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises[1]

     Where the Joker preys on our fears of random, irrational acts of terror, Bane has an all-consuming, dictatorial agenda that’s more stable and permanent, a New World Order that’s been planned out with the precision of a military coup.

2. (mathematics, arithmetic, number theory, not comparable) Of a real number, that cannot be written as the ratio of two integers.

   Antonym: rational

   Hyponym: transcendental

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

irrational (plural irrationals)

1. A real number that can not be expressed as the quotient of two integers, an irrational number.
   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.24:

     The square root of 2, which was the first irrational to be discovered, was known to the early Pythagoreans, and ingenious methods of approximating to its value were discovered.

Translations

German

Alternative forms

• irrationell

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???at?si?ona?l/, /??at?si?o?na?l/

Adjective

irrational (comparative irrationaler, superlative am irrationalsten)

1. irrational

Declension