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linear Definition

lin·ear (lin′ē ər)

adjective

  1. of or relating to a line or lines
  2. made of or using lines linear design
  3. in relation to length only; extended in a line
  4. designating or of a style of art in which forms are sharply delineated and line is emphasized over color, light and shadow, etc.
  5. having an effect or giving a response directly proportional to stimulus, force, or input: used esp. of electronic devices
  6. easy to comprehend because of being logical and not complex
  7. narrow and uniform in width, as the leaves of grasses
  8. Chem. having the basic structure of a straight chain
  9. Math. of or involving terms of a linear equation

Etymology: L linearis

linear Related Forms

lin′·ear·ly adverb

linear Synonyms

linear

modif.

lineal, lined, long, extended in a line, elongated, resembling a thread, continuing, unintermitting, looking like a line, rectilinear, successive, in the direction of a line, undeviating, narrow, threadlike, outstretched, extended; see also direct 1, straight 1.

linear Usage Examples

Adjective complement with noun phrase

make: It also shows how causation distinguishes time from space, makes time linear, gives it its direction and enables us to perceive it.

Modifies a noun

  • algebra: Even nonlinear problems usually involve linear algebra in their solution.
  • equation: Von Koch's first results were on infinitely many linear equations in infinitely many unknowns.
  • regression: The correlation between observations was tested using linear regression.
  • accelerator: The radiation beams from a linear accelerator can treat a tumor with around 1mm precision.
  • interpolation: Positions of the rest of the values are found by linear interpolation.
  • earthwork: Most likely, Wansdyke was a defensive linear earthwork.

Modifying Another Word

  • piecewise: As individual elements we choose piecewise linear or smooth maps, and compare results obtained in both cases.
  • strictly: Agents of the Enlightenment thought history was strictly linear, he says.
  • essentially: First, they have tended to see the global in terms of an essentially linear process, or linear processes, of globalization.
  • approximately: Memory usage is approximately linear in RE size, and largely insensitive to RE complexity, except for bounded repetitions.
  • fairly: This fall in heart rate is fairly linear, decreasing by approximately 1 beat per minute per year.
  • locally: Therefore, these algorithms rely on a locally linear internal model of the black box.

Used with adjective complement

  • remain: To rectify this I relocated both handles to the bottom edge in which the two points remain linear.
  • become: Have you established that the relationship is linear or can be transformed to become linear?
  • use: In television, I have used linear editing and Avid editing software, and have a working knowledge of DV Cams.
  • look: If you place the dots with even spacing from frame to frame, the motion will look linear.

Preposition: in

  • size: We show that graphs generated in this way have fairly large dominating sets ( i.e. , linear in the size of the graph ).
  • range: The pharmacokinetics of valsartan are linear in the dose range tested.

Preposition: with

respect: An obvious advantage of such algorithm would be that its time complexity will be linear with respect to the size of set of samples.