maximal
/ˈmæksɪməl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.06 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Such that no other element is greater (with respect to the given partial order).
noun
Said of an ideal of a ring or a filter of a lattice: that it is as large as it can be without being trivial (improper).
noun
Said of a set of well-formed formulas: that it is as large as it can be without being inconsistent; i.e. that for any well-formed formula φ, the set contains either φ or ~φ.
Example Sentences
- "The organification of iodide in the thyroid gland was described using a second order rate constant (KthybindC, /nmol/L*hr/kg thyroid weight) fitted to provide thyroidal iodide stores near the maximal value, which increased with age."
- "In the dependency graphs above, we can see that the maximal number of incomplete dependencies in each structure is five, while processing the most embedded noun[…]."
- "In the sequence (1, 2, 10, 5, 12, 6), the fifth term, f(5) = 12, is a maximal term, as each of the first 4 terms are smaller than 12."
- "With respect to the ordering induced by set-theoretic inclusion, the set #92;#123;#92;#123;2#92;#125;,#92;#123;1,2#92;#125;,#92;#123;2,3#92;#125;#92;#125; has two maximal elements: #92;#123;1,2#92;#125; and #92;#123;2,3#92;#125;"
Etymology
From maximum + -al.
Inflected Forms
max. (alternative)
maximals (plural)