Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧠 Logical and reasonable ➗ Fraction or integer ➗ A fraction
rational

rational

1 6.8
A number that can be written as a fraction of two whole numbers
  • noun
  • /ˈræʃənl/
  • Specialized
: número racional
  • Evidently there are way, way, way more rational numbers than there are integers.

And until the time of the Pythagoreans, it was assumed that all numbers were rationals.

Examples

  • An example of a rational number is 3 or -4.

  • So these are the possible rational roots.

  • If it equals a square number, then you have two rational solutions.

  • And what we want to know is the number of rational solutions to a particular elliptic equation.

  • Rationals are defined by parts of things—the positions between the numbers.

    Blog text (9)

  • A rational number can be written as the fraction 1/2.

  • In mathematics, a rational number includes any number that can be expressed as the quotient of two integers.

Synonyms

fraction
vsrational
  • Specialized
20 2.6

A number that shows a part of a whole written as one number over another

is broader and includes whole integers and ratios of integers
rational number
vsrational
  • Specialized
1 3.8

A number that can be written as a fraction like 3/4 or -1/2

also covers whole integers not only ratios of two integers

Antonyms

irrational number
  • Specialized
1 5.6

A number that cannot be written as a fraction, for example π or √2

Compounds

rational number
  • Specialized
1 3.8

A number that can be written as a fraction like 3/4 or -1/2

rational motive
1 5.6

A reason for doing something that someone can explain with clear thinking

Surface Forms

rational singular
rationals plural

Etymology

A rational as a noun takes its name from Latin ratio 'calculation' and simply means a number that can be written as a 'ratio' of two whole numbers, which is why such numbers are called rationals.