FUNCTIONAL • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Functional

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/fˈəŋkʃənəl/ Listen

adjective

Functional adj.

1.

Pertaining to, or connected with, a function or duty; official.

2.

(Pathology, Physiol.) Pertaining to the function of an organ or part, or to the functions in general; involving or affecting function rather than physiology; as, functional deafness; a functional disease. See functional disease, below. (wns=2)

3.

Designed for or capable of a particular function or use; as, a style of writing in which every word is functional; functional architecture. (wns=1)

4.

Fit or ready for use or service; useable; in working order; as, the toaster was still functional even after being dropped; the lawnmower is a bit rusty but still functional. Antonym of out of order and nonfunctional. (wns=4 & 6)

Synonyms: usable, useable, in working order(predicate), operable, operational, running(prenominal), operative.

5.

Designed to emphasize practical utility rather than artistic or aesthetic purposes; as, functional education selects knowledge that is concrete and usable rather than abstract and theoretical; functional architecture; an amateurish device, crude but functional.

Functional disease (Med.), a disease of which the symptoms cannot be referred to any appreciable lesion or change of structure; the derangement of an organ arising from a cause, often unknown, external to itself opposed to organic disease, in which the organ itself is affected.

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Etymology of 'Functional'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Functional" Quotes from Famous Books

... relations. When we call a group of animals, or of plants, a species, we may imply thereby, either that all these animals or plants have some common peculiarity of form or structure; or, we may mean that they possess some common functional character. That part of biological science which deals with form and structure is called Morphology—that which concerns itself with function, Physiology—so that we may conveniently speak of these two senses, or aspects, of "species"—the ...

— The Origin of Species - From 'The Westminster Review', April 1860 • Thomas H. Huxley

... low-level connection between afferent and efferent processes that brings the organism into direct rapport and harmony with the whole world of sense. Perhaps the more rankly and independently they are developed to full functional integrity, each in its season, if we only knew that season, the better. Premature control by higher centers, or cooerdination into higher compounds of habits and ordered serial activities, is repressive and wasteful, and the mature will of which they are components, or ...

— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall

... deviations seems to have broadened. Under the circumstances an analysis of civilization must take for granted not only social change but the development of, human society along lines which link up the outstanding structural and functional ideas, institutions and ...

— Civilization and Beyond - Learning From History • Scott Nearing

... copper bolt, and one seems to carry one's alimentary canal in the brain; that is to say, one is perpetually reminded that there is such a canal from the constant sense of pain and uneasiness, whereas the perfection of functional performance is obtained when the mind is unconscious ...

— The Opium Habit • Horace B. Day

... the middle metacarpal and metatarsal bones; and, attached to the extremity of each, is a digit with three joints of the same general character as those of the middle digit, only very much smaller. These small digits are so disposed that they could have had but very little functional importance, and they must have been rather of the nature of the dew-claws, such as are to be found in many ruminant animals. The Hipparion, as the extinct European three-toed horse is called, in fact presents a foot similar to that ...

— Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work • P. Chalmers Mitchell

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