incommensurable

Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for incommensurable.

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Editorial note

That Pi is irrational means that curved paths are incommensurable with linear measures.

Examples13

Definitions4

Parts of speech2

Quick take

An incommensurable value or quantity; an irrational number.

Meaning at a glance

The clearest senses and uses of incommensurable gathered in one view.

noun

An incommensurable value or quantity; an irrational number.

adjective

Not able to be measured by the same standards as another term in the context.

adjective

(mathematics, of two real numbers) having a ratio that is not expressible as a fraction of two integers.

Definitions

Core meanings and parts of speech for incommensurable.

noun

An incommensurable value or quantity; an irrational number.

adjective

Not able to be measured by the same standards as another term in the context.

adjective

(mathematics, of two real numbers) having a ratio that is not expressible as a fraction of two integers.

adjective

(mathematics, of two integers) having no common integer divisor except 1.

Example sentences

That Pi is irrational means that curved paths are incommensurable with linear measures.

Unfortunately good tests and scalable tests seem to be mutually incompatible, and non-scalable tests incommensurable.

They’re incommensurable: you’re making assumptions about what you will value in the future based on what you know in the present.

Yes, but the answers are subjective and incommensurable with the ranking criteria of those who would ask a question like that.

Ancient Greek math was based in geometry and Plato argued one could never demonstrate incommensurable lengths of rope due to physical constraints.

Cultures are fundamentally incommensurable and cannot be viewed from some abstract or neutral viewpoint.

Percentages are incommensurable with most things, including other percentages in the general case.

The Historical Popularity Index (HPI) and Wikipedia pageviews are incommensurable data points.

There is no way for a successor scientific theory to completely subsume all of the predictions of its predecessor because they are often incommensurable.

I would assume that these would all be completely different, and as a consequence, incommensurable.

This is a paradigm shift, and the models are incommensurable.

It's a classic example of the clash of incommensurable goods.

Quote examples

"incommensurable" is apparently being used in the sense that their logarithms are not in rational ratios (so no common step size generates them all in the relevant way).