functional
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.working correctly and ready to use.
adj.in good working order; operational and performing its intended task.
Simple“The elevator is finally functional again after being broken for a week.”
In context“Engineers worked through the night to ensure the cooling system was fully functional before the reactor was brought back online.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.designed to be useful and practical rather than just attractive.
adj.designed for utility and purpose rather than aesthetic appeal.
Simple“The furniture in the office is functional but not very comfortable.”
In context“The architect prioritised a functional layout that facilitated easy movement between departments over more decorative, traditional design elements.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
adj.relating to the specific job or purpose someone or something has.
adj.relating to a specific function, role, or office.
Simple“The manager has a functional responsibility to oversee the budget.”
In context“The restructuring aimed to clarify functional boundaries between the research and development teams to prevent overlapping duties.”
Synonyms - 04 C2 Proficiency
adj.used to describe health problems that affect how the body works but do not show physical damage.
adj.referring to symptoms or disorders that affect physiological performance without an apparent organic or structural cause.
Simple“The doctor explained that his stomach pain was a functional disorder caused by stress.”
In context“Functional neurological disorders can present with significant motor impairment despite the absence of visible lesions on a standard MRI scan.”
Antonyms - 05 C1 Advanced
adj.a way of writing computer code based on mathematical functions.
adj.relating to a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changing-state and mutable data.
Simple“Functional programming languages like Haskell are popular for complex data analysis.”
In context“The team decided to adopt a functional approach for the new microservice to minimize side effects and improve code testability.”
Antonyms - 06 C2 Proficiency
n.a special type of mathematical rule that takes a function as its input.
n.a function whose domain is a set of functions and whose range is a set of scalars.
Simple“In his advanced math class, he learned how to calculate a linear functional.”
In context“The researcher defined a functional that mapped each continuous path to its total energy consumption over a fixed interval.”
Synonyms
Usage appreciation functional · functional analysis · functional approach
“Variation in the beetle's body shape is caused by a functional trade-off between two feeding strategies.”
“But if these were families, they were frequently barely functional ones, without much staying power.”
From function + -al.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.