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.ɹə.ˈdʒiː.niː.əs/, /hɛ.tə.ˈɹo.dʒə.nəs/, /ˈhɛt.ɹə.dʒiː.nəs/, /ˈhɛt.ɹəʊ.dʒiː.nəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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, chemistry) 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
• Bulgarian: разнороден (bg) (raznoroden)
• 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

• Bulgarian: хетерогенен (bg) (heterogenen)
• Finnish: heterogeeninen (fi)

• Tagalog: dam-uriin

computing: comprising different types of computers or formats

• Finnish: heterogeeninen (fi)

Further reading

• 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