pseudoradical

English

Etymology

pseudo- +‎ radical

Noun

pseudoradical (plural pseudoradicals)

1. One who only claims or appears to be a political radical.
   • 2007 September 9, Karen Durbin, “Breaking Through”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     He protests the war in Vietnam, but looks with contempt on the hate-filled pseudoradicals who preach the politics of violence.

2. (mathematics) The intersection of the set of nonzero prime ideals of a ring.
3. (chemistry) An atom or group within a molecule which behaves like a free radical due to high valence.
   • 1971, Ernest I. Becker, Minoru Tsutsui, Organometallic Reactions, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     As suggested by Weinmayr in this example, the reaction proceeds by a different mechanism, not with the formation of free radicals but rather with separation of the C — Hg bond, thus producing pseudoradicals which do not diffuse into the reaction medium.

   • 2002, Willy J. Masschelein, Rip G. Rice, Ultraviolet Light in Water and Wastewater Sanitation, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 53:

     These pseudoradicals are not directly chain carriers in the reduction of peroxydisulfate, but they can further build up oxygen radical ions.

Adjective

pseudoradical (comparative more pseudoradical, superlative most pseudoradical)

1. Claiming or appearing to be politically radical, but not actually so.