# fractal
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (UK, US) IPA: /ˈfɹæk.təl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -æktəl

### Noun

fractal (plural fractals)
* (mathematics) A mathematical set that has a non-integer and constant Hausdorff dimension, corresponding to a geometric figure or object that is self-similar at arbitrarily small scales and thus has infinite complexity.
* (by extension) An object, system, or idea that exhibits a fractal-like property, such as the property of self-similarity at numerous but not infinitely many scales.
** 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 […]

#### Hyponyms

* See also Thesaurus:fractal

#### Derived terms

* curlicue fractal
* fractal dimension
* fractalesque
* ice fractal
* multifractal

#### Translations
### Adjective

fractal (not comparable)
* (mathematics) Having the form of a fractal; having to do with fractals.
** 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.
* (by extension, sometimes 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:

#### Derived terms

* fractal antenna
* fractal dimension
* fractal flame
* fractal response time

#### Translations
### Derived terms

* fractalist
* fractality
* fractalization
* fractalize
* fractally
* fractalness
* fracton
* monofractal
* nanofractal
* nonfractal
* pseudofractal
* semifractal
* subfractal
* superfractal
* thermofractal

### See also

* fractal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Mandelbrot set
* Julia set

### Anagrams

* flatcar

## Catalan
### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [fɾəkˈtal]
* IPA: (Valencia) [fɾakˈtal]
* Rhymes: -al

### Noun

fractal f (plural fractals)
* fractal

### Adjective

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractals)
* fractal

## French
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fʁak.tal/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

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

### Noun

fractal m (plural fractals or fractaux)
* (rare) Synonym of fractale

## Portuguese
### Alternative forms

* fratal (Portugal, nonstandard)

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯], /fɾa.kiˈtaw/ [fɾa.kiˈtaʊ̯]
* (Brazil) IPA: /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯], /fɾa.kiˈtaw/ [fɾa.kiˈtaʊ̯]
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /fɾakˈtaw/ [fɾakˈtaʊ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /fɾaˈktal/ [fɾaˈktaɫ], /fɾaˈtal/ [fɾaˈtaɫ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /fɾaˈktal/ [fɾaˈktaɫ], /fɾaˈtal/ [fɾaˈtaɫ]
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /fɾaˈkta.li/, /fɾaˈta.li/
* Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
* Hyphenation: frac‧tal

### Noun

fractal m (plural fractais)
* (mathematics) fractal (self-similar geometric figure)

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fɾaɡˈtal/ [fɾaɣ̞ˈt̪al]
* Rhymes: -al
* Syllabification: frac‧tal

### Noun

fractal m (plural fractales)
* fractal

### Adjective

fractal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fractales)
* fractal

### Further reading

* “fractal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10