This week’s theme
Creative usage examples

This week’s words
gleek
gowpen
fractal
glabella
diachrony

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(FRAK-tuhl)

MEANING:

noun: Something, such as a shape, curve, pattern, etc., where smaller parts have the same characteristics.
adjective: Having the form or qualities of a fractal.

ETYMOLOGY:

Coined by the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010), from Latin fractus (broken), from frangere (to break). Earliest documented use: 1975.

USAGE:

“After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shιt. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on, ad infinitum.”
Nate White; Why Do Many British People Not Like Donald Trump?; London Daily.

See more usage examples of fractal in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: