Word.ws English Dictionary

functional

/ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃənəl/

functional adjective: in good working order.

Adjective

functional (comparative more functional, superlative most functional)

  1. In good working order.
    • While we assume that phonological subsyllabic units are functional prior to reading skill, we have not ruled out a possible interaction with the writing system.2002, Ludo Verhoeven, Carsten Elbro, Pieter Reitsma, editors, Precursors of Functional Literacy
  2. Useful; serving a purpose, fulfilling a function.
    • That sculpture is not merely artistic, but also functional: it can be used as a hatrack.
    • The two are often one and the same, says Walt Thompson, professor of kinesiology at Georgia State University and lead author of the ACSM survey – although functional fitness can apply to the younger generation as well.2013 July 3, Jacque Wilson, “‘Functional fitness’ keeps seniors moving”, in CNN
  3. Only for functional purposes, notably in architecture.
    • A functional construction element generally must meet higher technical but lower aesthetical requirements.
  4. Of or relating to one's role or office; official.
    • functional responsibilities
  5. Characterizing functioning in environment, being symptoms that do not presuppose alteration of organic structure.
    • The clinical differentiation between functional and organic disease is at times difficult to establish, because, presumptively, in the beginning, at least, all organic disease is preceded by a physiologic perversion, that is, functional alteration, which may or may not be apparent with our present...1928 December 15, Frank J. Hirschboeck, “Treatment of Functional Heart Disease”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 91, number 24, →DOI, page 1852
    • In our study of participants aged 18–39, increasing age was associated with improved functioning in laundry task and overall social functioning, encompassing prosocial activities, recreation, independence–competence, and employment. […] However, several longitudinal and cross-sectional studies...2025 August 13, Müjdat Erarkadaş, Kübra Özmeral Erarkadaş, Şahika Gülen Şişmanlar, “Autism Spectrum Disorder Beyond Childhood: A Comprehensive Assessment of Activities of Daily Living and Social...
  6. Optimized for all-around physiological benefit.
    • functional coffee
    • functional fitness
  7. Of or relating to a function or functions.
  8. Having semantics defined purely in terms of mathematical functions, without side-effects.
    Synonyms:
    pure
    Antonyms:
    imperative

Noun

functional (plural functionals)

  1. A function that takes a function as its argument; more precisely, a function whose argument varies in a space of (real- or complex-valued) functions and whose value belongs to a monodimensional space.
    • An example of a functional is the definite integration of integrable real functions in a real interval.
  2. (functional analysis) A scalar-valued linear function on a vector space.
  3. An object encapsulating a function pointer (or equivalent).

functional meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

functional in Hindi

functional
प्रकार्यात्मक prakāryātmak
functional, practical, active
क्रियात्मक kriyātmak

functional in Tamil

நடைமுறைச் சார்ந்த, சார்புக்குரிய, வினைசார்

functional in Marathi

कार्यात्मक, कार्यशील

functional in Urdu

فنکشنل
More languagesFewer languages
functional in Bengali
ক্রিয়ামূলক, কার্মিক, স্বাভাবিক ক্রিয়ামূলক, কর্তব্যমূলক
functional in Telugu
ఫంక్షనల్, క్రియాత్మకమైనవి, క్రియాత్మకమైనది
functional in Malayalam
പ്രവർത്തനക്ഷമതയുള്ള, പ്രവർത്തനതലത്തിലുള്ള, ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുന്ന, അഭ്യാസക്ഷമമായ
functional in Kannada
ಕ್ರಿಯಾತ್ಮಕ, ಕಾರ್ಯಾತ್ಮಕ, ಕಾರ್ಯಾನುಗುಣ, ಉದ್ದೇಶ ಸಾಧಕ
functional in Punjabi
ਕਾਰਜਸ਼ੀਲ, ਫੰਕਸ਼ਨਲ
functional in Gujarati
કાર્યલક્ષી kāryalakṣī
functional in Odia
କାର୍ଯ୍ଯ଼କ୍ଷମ, କାର୍ଯ୍ଯ଼ାତ୍ମକ
functional in Nepali
कार्यात्मक

Examples of functional in a sentence

  • Functional analysis is best approached through a sound knowledge of Hilbert space theory.
  • Within the normal reproductive cycle, haploidisation is one of the major functional consequences of meiosis.
  • Planidial instars generally are highly sclerotized and have functional legs or other means of locomotion.

All 40 example sentences with functional

Synonyms of functional

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of functional

Forms of functional

Adjective
comparativemore functional
superlativemost functional
Noun
pluralfunctionals

Origin of functional

From function + -al.

Words formed from functional

Phrases with functional

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about functional

What does functional mean?
Functional means in good working order.
What is functional in Hindi?
Functional in Hindi is प्रकार्यात्मक (prakāryātmak), क्रियात्मक (kriyātmak). See Functional meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is functional?
Functional can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce functional?
Functional is pronounced /ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃənəl/.

Words near functional in the dictionary

  1. function-evaluation routines
  2. functionability
  3. functionable
  4. functionaire
  5. functionaires
  6. functional
  7. functional analysis
  8. functional beverage
  9. functional beverages
  10. functional constituencies
  11. functional constituency

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: functional (page history and authors); क्रियात्मक (Hindi) (page history and authors); functional (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); functional (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); functional (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); functional (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); functional (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); functional (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); functional (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); functional (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); કાર્યલક્ષી (Gujarati) (page history and authors); functional (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); functional (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-functional.ogg.

Cite this entry: “functional.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/functional. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.