incommensurable
/ɪnkəˈmɛnʃ(ə)ɹəbəl/
incommensurable means having a ratio that is not expressible as a fraction of two integers. It carries an Arena rating of 1567, earned across 17 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, incommensurable ranks #233 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #659 of 42,752 for Qualifying, #1,666 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,887 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
incommensurable is pronounced /ɪnkəˈmɛnʃ(ə)ɹəbəl/.
Why “incommensurable” is a great word
Not able to be measured or compared by a common standard, often describing quantities with no common unit of measure or things fundamentally different in kind. From the Medieval Latin incommensurabilis, from in- ("not") + commensurabilis ("measurable together"), first attested in English in the 1550s. Unlike "incomparable," which suggests a superlative uniqueness, or "disparate," which notes an essential difference, incommensurable names the abyss between the very rules of measurement. It is the silence in the space between musical notes, the impossibility of weighing a sorrow against a kilogram, or the attempt to chart love's depth with a surveyor's chain—the quiet acknowledgment that some truths exist in separate, sovereign dimensions, leaving only the ache of true untranslatability.
Etymology
From Middle French incommensurable, from Medieval Latin incommensurabilis. Its full etymology is equivalent to that of in- + commensurable.
adj
- having a ratio that is not expressible as a fraction of two integers.e.g.“The side and diagonal of a square are incommensurable with each other; the diameter and circumference of a circle are incommensurable.”
- having no common integer divisor except 1.
- Not able to be measured by the same standards as another term in the context.
noun
- An incommensurable value or quantity; an irrational number.e.g.“Unfortunately for Pythagoras, his theorem led at once to the discovery of incommensurables, which appeared to disprove his whole philosophy.” — 1946, Bertrand Russell, chapter 3, in History of Western Philosophy:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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