Irreducible

//ˌɪɹɪˈdjuːsɪbəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Such a polynomial
Adjective
  1. 1
    Not able to be reduced or lessened. not-comparable

    "With each reduction in the number of railways, there must come, eventually, a decline in interest, if only through reduction in variety; and when it comes to one nationalised railway only we have reached the irreducible minimum."

  2. 2
    Not able to be brought to a simpler or reduced form. not-comparable
  3. 3
    Unable to be factorized into polynomials of lower degree, as (x² + 1). not-comparable
  4. 4
    Whose numerator and denominator share no common factor greater than 1. not-comparable
  5. 5
    Unable to be factored into smaller integers; prime. not-comparable
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    Whose only divisors are units and associates. not-comparable
  2. 7
    Inexpressible as the union of two proper algebraic subvarieties. not-comparable
  3. 8
    Not containing a sphere of codimension 1 that is not the boundary of a ball. not-comparable
  4. 9
    Impossible to divide further into representations of lower dimension by means of any similarity transformation. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    incapable of being made smaller or simpler wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
a certainananyany oneatomicaustere

Example

More examples

"This is what I believe: that all of us can be co-workers with God. And our leadership, and our governments, and this United Nations should reflect this irreducible truth."

Etymology

From ir- + reducible.

Related phrases

irreducible complexity

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