fractal

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

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹæk.təl/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -æktəl

fractal (plural fractals)

1. (mathematics) A mathematical set that has a non-integer and constant Hausdorff dimension; a geometric figure that is self-similar at all scales.
2. (figurative) An object, system, or idea that exhibits a fractal-like property.
   • 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 […]

• See also Thesaurus:fractal

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.
   • 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. (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:

• fractal antenna
• fractal dimension
• fractal response time

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

• flatcar

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

fractal f (plural fractals)

1. fractal

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractals)

1. fractal

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

• IPA^(key): /fʁak.tal/

• Audio

  (file)

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

1. fractal

fractal m (plural fractals or fractaux)

1. (rare) Synonym of fractale

• fratal (Portugal, nonstandard)

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

fractal m (plural fractais)

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

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

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractales)

1. fractal

• “fractal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014