Incommensurable

//ɪnkəˈmɛnʃ(ə)ɹəbəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An incommensurable value or quantity; an irrational number.

    "Unfortunately for Pythagoras, his theorem led at once to the discovery of incommensurables, which appeared to disprove his whole philosophy."

Adjective
  1. 1
    having a ratio that is not expressible as a fraction of two integers.

    "The side and diagonal of a square are incommensurable with each other; the diameter and circumference of a circle are incommensurable."

  2. 2
    having no common integer divisor except 1.
  3. 3
    Not able to be measured by the same standards as another term in the context.
Adjective
  1. 1
    not having a common factor wordnet
  2. 2
    impossible to measure or compare in value or size or excellence wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
incommensurateincomparableabnormalabsurdalienanomalous

Example

More examples

"The side and diagonal of a square are incommensurable with each other; the diameter and circumference of a circle are incommensurable."

Etymology

From Middle French incommensurable, from Medieval Latin incommensurabilis. Its full etymology is equivalent to that of in- + commensurable.

Related phrases

irrational number

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.