heterogeneous

English

WOTD – 26 January 2012

Etymology

From Medieval Latin heterogeneus, from Ancient Greek ἑτερογενής ‎(heterogenḗs, “of different kinds”), from ἕτερος ‎(héteros, “other, another, different”) + γένος ‎(génos, “kind”). Compare hetero- and -ous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /hɛ.tə.rə.ˈdʒiː.niː.əs/, /hɛ.tə.ˈro.dʒə.nəs/, /ˈhɛt.rə.dʒiː.nəs/, /ˈhɛt.rəʊ.dʒiː.nəs/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

heterogeneous ‎(comparative more heterogeneous, superlative most heterogeneous)

1. Diverse in kind or nature; composed of diverse parts.

   He had a large and heterogeneous collection of books.‎

2. (mathematics) Incommensurable because of different kinds.
3. (physics) Having more than one phase (solid, liquid, gas) present in a system or process.
4. (chemistry) Visibly consisting of different components.
5. (computing) Of a network comprising different types of computers, potentially with vastly differing memory sizes, processing power and even basic underlying architecture; alternatively, of a data resource with multiple types of formats.

Antonyms

• homogeneous

Related terms

Related terms

• heterogene
• heterogeneal

• heterogeneity
• heterogeneously

• heterogeneous mixture, heterogeneous catalysis
• heterogeneousness

• heterogenous

Translations

diverse in kind

• Albanian: heterogjen (sq), i tjetërllojshëm
• Catalan: heterogeni
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 異質 (zh), 异质 (zh) ‎(yìzhì)

• Czech: heterogenní, různorodý
• Dutch: heterogeen (nl), heterogene (nl)
• Finnish: epäyhtenäinen, sekalainen (fi), heterogeeninen (fi)
• French: hétérogène (fr)
• Galician: heteroxéneo (gl)
• German: heterogen (de)
• Irish: ilchineálach, ilghnéitheach
• Italian: eterogeneo (it)
• Latin: heterogeneus

• Manx: yl-chynnoil, yl-cheintagh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: heterogen

  Nynorsk: heterogen

• Polish: heterogeniczny
• Portuguese: heterogêneo (pt) m, heterogênea f
• Romanian: eterogen (ro) m, n, eterogenă f, neuniform m, n
• Russian: неодноро́дный (ru) ‎(neodnoródnyj), гетероге́нный (ru) ‎(geterogénnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: iol-ghnèitheach
• Spanish: heterogéneo (es)
• Swedish: heterogen (sv)
• Telugu: విజాతి (te) ‎(vijāti), విభిన్న (te) ‎(vibhinna)

mathematics: incommensurable

• Finnish: heterogeeninen (fi)

physics: having more than one phase

• Finnish: heterogeeninen (fi)
• Romanian: eterogen (ro)

• Tagalog: dam-uriin

chemistry: visibly consisting of different components

• Finnish: heterogeeninen (fi)

• Tagalog: dam-uriin

computing: comprising different types of computers or formats

• Finnish: heterogeeninen (fi)

External links

• heterogeneous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• heterogeneous in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• heterogeneous at OneLook Dictionary Search