radical (
http://definr.com/radical)
adj 1: (used of opinions and actions) far beyond the norm;
"extremist political views"; "radical opinions on
education"; "an ultra conservative" [syn:
extremist,
ultra]
2: markedly new or introducing radical change; "a revolutionary
discovery"; "radical political views" [syn:
revolutionary]
3: arising from or going to the root; "a radical flaw in the
plan" [syn:
root]
4: (linguistics) of or relating to or constituting a linguistic
root; "a radical verb form"
5: (botany) especially of leaves; located at the base of a
plant or stem; especially arising directly from the root
or rootstock or a root-like stem; "basal placentation";
"radical leaves" [syn:
basal] [ant:
cauline]
n 1: (chemistry) two or more atoms bound together as a single
unit and forming part of a molecule [syn:
group, {chemical
group}]
2: an atom or group of atoms with at least one unpaired
electron; in the body it is usually an oxygen molecule
than has lost an electron and will stabilize itself by
stealing an electron from a nearby molecule; "in the body
free radicals are high-energy particles that ricochet
wildly and damage cells" [syn:
free radical]
3: a person who has radical ideas or opinions
4: a character conveying the lexical meaning of a logogram
5: a sign placed in front of an expression to denote that a
root is to be extracted [syn:
radical sign]
6: (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are
removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" [syn:
root,
root word,
base,
stem,
theme]