irregular
/ɪˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə//ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/
irregular adjective: nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.
Adjective
irregular (comparative more irregular, superlative most irregular)
- Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.
- ‘ “It would be most irregular Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 33
- Of a surface, rough.
- Synonyms:
- coarse
- Without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity.
- The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick
- Near by, where the crystal clear River Llugwy is crossed by a bridge, stands a small and ancient church built of massive, irregular boulders.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 100
- Synonyms:
- unstable
- Of a polygon, not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal.
- Of a polyhedron, whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other).
- Of a word, not following the regular or expected patterns of inflection in a given language.
- "Calves", "cacti", and "children" are irregular plurals.
- "To buy" is an irregular English verb: its past simple and past participle tense is "bought".
- Synonyms:
- heteroclite
- Having abnormal bowel movements at inconsistent intervals.
- Antonyms:
- regular
Noun
irregular (plural irregulars)
- A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and who may not use regular army tactics.
- One who does not regularly attend a venue.
- There's one neighborhood tavern where the regulars and irregulars go after a hard day to unlax and rewind, throw back a few, and just hang out - you know the one.2015, Brian Cook, Hands Across The Sea, page 190
irregular meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
irregular in Hindi
- non-standard
- अमानक amānak, अनियमित aniymit
- lacking uniformity
- अनियमित aniymit
irregular in Tamil
- ஒழுங்கற்ற, முறைகேடான, முறையற்ற, விதிக்குப் புறம்பான, விதிக்குப்புறம்பான ஒழுங்கற்ற முறை தவறான, ஒழுங்கில்லாத
irregular in Marathi
- irregular
- अनियमित aniyamit
irregular in Urdu
- irregular, unusual
- گڑبڑ gaṛbaṛ
More languagesFewer languages
- irregular in Bengali
- অনিয়মিত, অসামঞ্জস্যপূর্ণ, নিয়মবহির্ভূত
- irregular in Malayalam
- ക്രമരഹിതമായ, നിരപ്പല്ലാത്ത, ഉയർന്നും താണുമുള്ള, അക്രമ
- irregular in Kannada
- ಅಸಮ ಪ್ರಮಾಣದ, ಅಸಮ ತಳದ, ಅಸಮ ರೂಪದ, ಒಂದೇತರವಿಲ್ಲದ
- irregular in Punjabi
- ਬੇਕਾਇਦਾ bekāidā
- irregular in Gujarati
- અનિયમિત
- irregular in Odia
- ଅନିଯ଼ମିତ
- irregular in Nepali
- अनियमित
- irregular in Arabic
- شَاذّ šāḏḏ, غَيْر مُنْتَظِم ḡayr muntaẓim
Examples of irregular in a sentence
- I hate learning all the irregular conjugations in French.
- The improvements will be most keenly felt across Lincolnshire, where current irregular service patterns are more a function of operational convenience than passenger demand.2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 58:
Synonyms of irregular
Antonyms
Forms of irregular
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more irregular |
| superlative | most irregular |
| Noun | |
| plural | irregulars |
Origin of irregular
From Middle English irreguler, from Old French irreguler, from Medieval Latin or Late Latin irrēgulāris, from in- + regularis, equivalent to ir- + regular.
Words formed from irregular
Phrases with irregular
Questions about irregular
- What does irregular mean?
- Irregular means nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.
- What is irregular in Hindi?
- Irregular in Hindi is अमानक (amānak), अनियमित (aniymit). See Irregular meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use irregular in a sentence?
- I hate learning all the irregular conjugations in French.
- What part of speech is irregular?
- Irregular can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce irregular?
- Irregular is pronounced /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə/ (UK).
Words near irregular in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: irregular (page history and authors); irregular (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अनियमित (Marathi) (page history and authors); گڑبڑ (Urdu) (page history and authors); Irregular (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); irregular (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); irregular (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਬੇਕਾਇਦਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); irregular (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); irregular (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); irregular (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-irregular.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-irregular.wav.
Cite this entry: “irregular.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/irregular. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.