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irrational number

noun

, Mathematics.
  1. a number that cannot be exactly expressed as a ratio of two integers.

irrational number

noun

  1. any real number that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two integers, such as π

irrational number

/ ĭ-răsh′ə-nəl /

  1. A number that cannot be expressed as a ratio between two integers and is not an imaginary number. If written in decimal notation, an irrational number would have an infinite number of digits to the right of the decimal point, without repetition. Pi and the square root of 2 (√2) are irrational numbers.

irrational number

  1. A number that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two whole numbers .

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Notes

The square roots of most whole numbers are irrational numbers.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of irrational number1

First recorded in 1545–55

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Example Sentences

This is because there are way more irrational numbers than rational numbers.

So what’s kind of funny is that you didn’t provide me a number — an irrational number — that is actually the most common kind of number there is.

In that theory an irrational number was the ratio of two incommensurable geometric magnitudes.

The widened idea is that even when a or x is an irrational number we may speak of a or x unit lengths by measure.

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