English

Adjective

irregular ‎(comparative more irregular, superlative most irregular)

1. Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.
   • 1967, Sleigh, Barbara, Jessamy, 1993 edition, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, ISBN 0 340 19547 9, page 33:

     ‘ “It would be most irregular Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’

2. Of a surface, rough.
3. Without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity.
   • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

     The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

   • 2013 January 1, Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore, “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, page 47–48:

     Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration.

   • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:

     Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.

4. (geometry, of a polygon) Not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal.
5. (geometry, of a polyhedron) Whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other).

Antonyms

• regular

Derived terms

• irregular plural
• irregular verb

Translations

Noun

irregular ‎(plural irregulars)

1. A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics.
2. One who does not regularly attend a venue.
   • 2015, Brian Cook, Hands Across The Sea (page 190)

     There's one neighborhood tavern where the regulars and irregulars go after a hard day to unlax and rewind, throw back a few, and just hang out - you know the one.

Translations

Catalan

Adjective

irregular m, f ‎(masculine and feminine plural irregulars)

1. irregular

Antonyms

• regular

Related terms

• irregularitat

Galician

Adjective

irregular m, f (plural irregulares)

1. irregular

Portuguese

Adjective

irregular m, f ‎(plural irregulares, comparable)

1. irregular; nonstandard
2. (grammar) irregular (not following an inflectional paradigm)

Spanish

Adjective

irregular m, f ‎(plural irregulares)

1. irregular