Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Impossible to measure or compare.
- adjective Lacking a common quality on which to make a comparison.
- adjective Having no common measure or number of which all the given lengths or measures are integral multiples.
- adjective Having an irrational ratio.
- noun One that is incommensurable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not commensurable; having no common measure: thus, two quantities are incommensurable when no third quantity can be found that is an aliquot part of both; in arithmetic, having no common divisor except unity. See
commensurable . - noun One of two or more quantities which have no common measure.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not commensurable; having no common measure or standard of comparison
- noun One of two or more quantities which have no common measure.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective mathematics That cannot be measured as an
integer orfraction ;irrational . - adjective Not able to be measured by the same standards as another term in the context; see
measurement ; contrast withunmeasurable orimmeasurable , each of which means not able to be measured at all, the former more generally, the latter generally due to some infinite quality of the thing being described - noun An incommensurable value or quantity; an
irrational number .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective impossible to measure or compare in value or size or excellence
- adjective not having a common factor
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It might seem as though the idea of incommensurable alternatives does not really make sense.
Dynamic Choice Andreou, Chrisoula 2007
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"incommensurable" -- they sail past each other; the two sides are talking about different things.
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The "loving anachronism" Steven Jones's happy phraseof reading Shelley with and against historical moments and political crises that are irreducibly unique and particular, "incommensurable" (Jones again), confirms those lines in Adonais (stanza 46) about the "fire" outliving the "parent spark."
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But, of course, there is a multitude of long views, each subjective and many incommensurable with any other.
"Would you like to see a little of it?" said the Mock Turtle. greygirlbeast 2010
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If you recall, there was a devastating earthquake in this area not long ago, in 1999, with thousands of people who suffered and incommensurable damage.
Largest Solar Powered Building in the World Unveiled in China 2009
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Faith-based belief systems are absolutely incommensurable.
Ted Cadsby: Defying Our Maker: What The New Atheists Miss Ted Cadsby 2011
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Faith-based belief systems are absolutely incommensurable.
Ted Cadsby: Defying Our Maker: What The New Atheists Miss Ted Cadsby 2011
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Leandro laughs at the students chanting about the workers and opines that though some talk about ‘re-enacting’ political events, we are not Chileans, and we are not in Chile thirty-five years ago, as if our worlds are incommensurable.
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The US was resented not because it was culturally incommensurable or advocated human rights, but because it supported a despot who made it possible for the US to dominate oil interests in the Iranian economy.
Mahmood Delkhasteh: Clash of Civilizations Discredited Mahmood Delkhasteh 2011
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He argued that although the age of grand ideological struggles ended with the collapse of Soviet communism, the world had in fact regressed to a prior stage of development, which was based on the "normal" clashes that he said resulted from incommensurable forms of cultural difference.
Mahmood Delkhasteh: Clash of Civilizations Discredited Mahmood Delkhasteh 2011
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