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functional.

In good working order.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃənəl//ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃnəl/
  1. In good working order.

  2. Useful; serving a purpose, fulfilling a function.

    That sculpture is not merely artistic, but also functional: it can be used as a hatrack.
  3. Only for functional purposes, notably in architecture.

    A functional construction element generally must meet higher technical but lower aesthetical requirements.
  4. Of or relating to one's role or office; official.

    functional responsibilities
  5. Characterizing functioning in environment, being symptoms that do not presuppose alteration of organic structure.

  6. Optimized for all-around physiological benefit.

    functional coffee
    functional fitness
  7. Of or relating to a function or functions.

  8. Having semantics defined purely in terms of mathematical functions, without side-effects.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰewg-der. Proto-Italic *fungōr Latin fungor Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin fūnctiō Old French fonction Middle French functionbor. English function Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English functional From function + -al.

noun/ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃənəl//ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃnəl/
  1. A function that takes a function as its argument; more precisely, a function whose argument varies in a space of (real- or complex-valued) functions and whose value belongs to a monodimensional space.

    An example of a functional is the definite integration of integrable real functions in a real interval.
  2. A scalar-valued linear function on a vector space.

  3. An object encapsulating a function pointer (or equivalent).

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰewg-der. Proto-Italic *fungōr Latin fungor Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin fūnctiō Old French fonction Middle French functionbor. English function Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English functional From function + -al.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.