irregular

«irregular» in Mova's school dictionary: not even or not the same shape or size all over: "an… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (irregular, more irregular, most irregular); noun (irregulars — soldiers, rare)

meaning for a pupil

1) Irregular means not even or not the same shape or size all over: "an irregular coastline". tree →

2) Irregular means not happening at equal times: "an irregular heartbeat", "irregular meals". tree →

3) In grammar, irregular verbs and plurals do not follow the normal rule: go → went, child → children. tree →

4) (formal) Irregular can mean not following the usual rules, not proper: "irregular behaviour". tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths, an irregular shape (an irregular polygon) has sides or angles that are not all equal; its area is often found by splitting it into rectangles or counting squares. In grammar lessons, irregular verbs must be learned by heart. In health, an irregular pulse is checked by a doctor. Phrases: irregular shape, irregular polygon, irregular verb, at irregular times.

examples

• A rectangle that is not a square is an irregular quadrilateral. tree →
• Find the area of the irregular shape by counting squares. tree →
• "Swim" is an irregular verb: swim, swam, swum. tree →
• The plural of "mouse" is irregular: mice. tree →
• The bus comes at irregular times. tree →
• The country has an irregular coastline with many bays. tree →
• The doctor heard an irregular heartbeat. tree →
• The streets were rather irregular, it is true, but still this added to their picturesque appearance. tree →

note

Opposite: regular. Spelling: double r (ir- + regular). In maths, a regular polygon has all sides and all angles equal; any other polygon is irregular. Irregular verbs do not take -ed in the past.

In the corpora

• Irregular verbs do not add -ed: swim/swam, run/ran, go/went, catch/caught.
• "Irregular" is a polite way to say constipated, when poo will not come out easily.
• "Flexible hours" often means irregular hours with no guaranteed pay.
• Good, better, best and bad, worse, worst are irregular comparisons.
• Blow is irregular: blow, blew, blown.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «irregular» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.