Radical - Definition

adj 1: (used of opinions and actions) far beyond the norm;
"extremist political views"; "radical opinions on
education"; "an ultra conservative" [syn: extremist,
radical, ultra]
2: markedly new or introducing radical change; "a revolutionary
discovery"; "radical political views" [syn: revolutionary,
radical]
3: arising from or going to the root or source; "a radical flaw
in the plan"
4: of or relating to or constituting a linguistic root; "a
radical verb form"
5: especially of leaves; located at the base of a plant or stem;
especially arising directly from the root or rootstock or a
root-like stem; "basal placentation"; "radical leaves" [syn:
radical, basal] [ant: cauline]
n 1: (chemistry) two or more atoms bound together as a single
unit and forming part of a molecule [syn: group,
radical, chemical group]
2: an atom or group of atoms with at least one unpaired
electron; in the body it is usually an oxygen molecule that
has lost an electron and will stabilize itself by stealing an
electron from a nearby molecule; "in the body free radicals
are high-energy particles that ricochet wildly and damage
cells" [syn: free radical, radical]
3: a person who has radical ideas or opinions
4: (mathematics) a quantity expressed as the root of another
quantity
5: a character conveying the lexical meaning of a logogram
6: (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are
removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" [syn: root,
root word, base, stem, theme, radical]