fractal

English

WOTD – 18 October 2010

English Wikipedia has an article on:

fractal

Wikipedia

A Julia set fractal

Etymology

From French fractal, from Latin fractus (“broken”), perfect passive participle of frangō (“break, fragment”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹæk.təl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æktəl

Noun

fractal (plural fractals)

1. (mathematics) A mathematical set that has a non-integer and constant Hausdorff dimension, corresponding to a geometric figure or object that is self-similar at arbitrarily small scales and thus has infinite complexity.
2. (by extension) An object, system, or idea that exhibits a fractal-like property, such as the property of self-similarity at numerous but not infinitely many scales.
   • 1999, John J. McGonagle, Carolyn M. Vella, The Internet Age of Competitive Intelligence, →ISBN:

     In essence, you are assuming that each segment of a company is a fractal of the whole […]

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:fractal

Derived terms

• curlicue fractal
• fractal dimension
• fractalesque
• ice fractal
• multifractal

 

Translations

mathematical figure that is self-similar at all scales

Armenian: ֆրակտալ (fraktal) Catalan: fractal (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 分形 (zh) (fēnxíng), 碎形 (suìxíng), 殘形／残形 (cánxíng) Czech: fraktál (cs) m Finnish: fraktaali (fi) French: fractal (fr) m, fractale (fr) m German: Fraktal (de) n Greek: μορφόκλασμα n (morfóklasma) Hungarian: fraktál (hu) Italian: frattale (it) m Japanese: フラクタル (furakutaru) Korean: 프랙탈 (peuraektal) Macedonian: фракта́л m (fraktál) Norwegian: fraktal m Polish: fraktal (pl) m Portuguese: fractal m Russian: фрактал (ru) m (fraktal) Spanish: fractal (es) m Swedish: fraktal (sv) c

anything exhibiting self-similarity at many scales

Catalan: fractal (ca) m Czech: fraktál (cs) m Esperanto: fraktalo Finnish: fraktaali (fi) German: Fraktal (de) n Greek: μορφόκλασμα n (morfóklasma) Hungarian: fraktál (hu) Italian: frattale (it) m Macedonian: фракта́л m (fraktál) Norwegian: fraktal m Portuguese: fractal m or f Spanish: fractal (es) m Swedish: fraktal (sv) c

Adjective

Romanesco, a vegetable related to broccoli and cauliflower made up of mini-spirals in fractal formation

fractal (not comparable)

1. (mathematics) Having the form of a fractal; having to do with fractals.
   • 2015 January 26, Mark Diacono, “How to grow and cook cauliflower, 2015's trendiest veg: Tricky to grow, boring to boil ... so why is the outmoded cauliflower back at the culinary cutting edge? [print version: Cauliflower power, 24 January 2015, pp. G1 & G3]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎:

     Romanesco was my gateway cauli and I've never stopped growing it. Not a variety as much as its own thing, Romanesco is a cauliflower to the French, a calabrese to the Italians. […] Visually, it may be the most remarkable thing you can grow: it is made up of lime-green mini-spirals that coil around themselves in fractal formation.

2. (by extension, sometimes figurative) Exhibiting a fractal-like property.
   • 2007, Vincent Spina, “Three Central American writers: alone between two cultures”, in Carlota Caulfield, Darién J. Davis, editors, Companion to United States Latino Literatures, →ISBN:

     A fractal situation emerges in this way then: the consequences of Ulysses' decision to abandon Calypso are not entirely predictable.

   • 2020, Frank E. Zachos, Les Christidis, Stephen Garnett, “The Tree of Life, however, is an encaptic system displaying a nested hierarchy with a fractal pattern (lineages within lineages).”, in Mammalia, volume 84, number 1, page 2:

Derived terms

• fractal antenna
• fractal dimension
• fractal response time

Translations

having the form of a fractal

Catalan: fractal (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 分形的 (fēnxíngdē) Czech: fraktální Finnish: fraktaalinen (fi) French: fractal (fr) German: fraktal (de) Greek: μορφοκλασματικός (el) m (morfoklasmatikós) Italian: frattale (it) Norwegian: fraktal Polish: fraktalny (pl) m Romanian: fractal Russian: фрактальный (ru) (fraktalʹnyj) Spanish: fractal (es)

See also

Commons

Wikimedia Commons has related media at:

fractal

• fractal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Mandelbrot set
• Julia set

Anagrams

• flatcar

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [fɾəkˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [fɾakˈtal]
• Rhymes: -al

Noun

fractal f (plural fractals)

1. fractal

Adjective

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractals)

1. fractal

French

Etymology

Coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975, from Latin fractus +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁak.tal/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

fractal (feminine fractale, masculine plural fractals or fractaux, feminine plural fractales)

1. fractal

Noun

fractal m (plural fractals or fractaux)

1. (rare) Synonym of fractale

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• fratal (Portugal, nonstandard)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯], /fɾa.kiˈtaw/ [fɾa.kiˈtaʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯], /fɾa.kiˈtaw/ [fɾa.kiˈtaʊ̯]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɾaˈktal/ [fɾaˈktaɫ], /fɾaˈtal/ [fɾaˈtaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɾaˈktal/ [fɾaˈktaɫ], /fɾaˈtal/ [fɾaˈtaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɾaˈkta.li/, /fɾaˈta.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: frac‧tal

Noun

fractal m (plural fractais)

1. (mathematics) fractal (self-similar geometric figure)

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɾaɡˈtal/ [fɾaɣ̞ˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: frac‧tal

Noun

fractal m (plural fractales)

1. fractal

Adjective

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractales)

1. fractal

Further reading

• “fractal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28