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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

linear.

Having the form of a line; straight or roughly straight; following a direct course.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈlɪn.i.ə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈlɪn.i.əɹ/General-American/liː.nɪ.jə(ɾ)/India/liːn.jə(ɾ)/India
  1. Having the form of a line; straight or roughly straight; following a direct course.

  2. Of or relating to lines.

  3. Made, or designed to be used, in a step-by-step, sequential manner.

    a linear medium
  4. Long and narrow, with nearly parallel sides.

  5. (of polynomials or polynomial equations) Having degree one; that is, being of the form a_1x_1+a_2x_2+⋯+a_nx_n+b, where each x_i is a variable. See also Linear polynomials on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

    4x#43;5y#43;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;2#125;z is a linear polynomial, but 4xy#43;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;2#125;z and 4x#43;z² are not.
  6. (of polynomials or polynomial equations) Involving only linear polynomials. See also Linear equation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

    The graph of the linear equation y#61;ax#43;b is a straight line with slope a and y-intercept b
  7. (of functions or maps) An additive, homogeneous mapping; that is, a function f:V→W is linear if it distributes over vector addition (f( mathbf v+ mathbf w)=f( mathbf v)+f( mathbf w)) and respects scalar multiplication (f(c mathbf v)=cf( mathbf v)). If V and W are vector spaces over a field K, f may also be called a K-linear map. See also linear map on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

    The map f#58;#92;mathbb#123;R#125;³#92;to#92;mathbb#123;R#125;² taking (x,y,z)#92;mapsto(x#43;y#43;z,x-y#43;3z) is a linear map.
  8. (of functions or maps) A module homomorphism; that is, a group homomorphism that commutes with scalar multiplication. See also Module homomorphism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

  9. A type of length measurement involving only one spatial dimension (as opposed to area or volume).

    a linear meter
  10. Delivered or delivering on a fixed schedule, as opposed to on-demand.

    linear TV, linear content, linear video, linear radio
    Linear television is dead or, at least, declining.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Latin līneāris, from līnea (“line”) + -āris (adjectival suffix), equivalent to line + -ar. Doublet of lineal.

noun/ˈlɪn.i.ə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈlɪn.i.əɹ/General-American/liː.nɪ.jə(ɾ)/India/liːn.jə(ɾ)/India
  1. Ellipsis of linear amplifier.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · slang
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Latin līneāris, from līnea (“line”) + -āris (adjectival suffix), equivalent to line + -ar. Doublet of lineal.

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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.