invariable - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From in- + variable.

invariable (not comparable)

  1. Not variable; unalterable; uniform; always having the same value.
    • 1860, Isaac Taylor, Ultimate Civilisation:
      Physical laws which are invariable.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action.
    • 1957 October, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 714:
      The rebuilt "Merchant Navy" Pacifics have the monopoly of these workings, and Mr. C. K. Dunkley writes that as a result of their reduced water consumption, as compared with the unrebuilt engines, some engine-crews no longer spend time taking water at Southampton Central, the invariable practice previously.
  2. (mathematics) Constant.
  3. (by extension, grammar, of a word, or a grammatical class) That cannot undergo inflection, conjugation or declension.
    Synonym: uninflectable
    Hyponyms: indeclinable, inconjugable
    The French adjective marron ‘brown’ is invariable: it does not take the usual s in the plural.

not variable

invariable (plural invariables)

  1. Something that does not vary; a constant.
  1. ^ Stanley, Oma (1937), “II. Vowel Sounds in Unstressed and Partially Stressed Syllables”, in The Speech of East Texas (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 2), New York: Columbia University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, § II.2, page 46. (/ɪnˈve˞┬ɚbl̩/, with /e/, in contrast to the next word mentioned on the same page which has /ɛ/)

From in- +‎ variable.

invariable m or f (masculine and feminine plural invariables)

  1. invariable

From in- +‎ variable.

invariable (plural invariables)

  1. invariable

From in- +‎ variable.

invariable m or f (masculine and feminine plural invariables)

  1. invariable

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