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REGULARITY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of being characterized by a fixed principle or rate
Example:
he was famous for the regularity of his habits
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("regularity" is a kind of...):
quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)
Attribute:
regular (in accordance with fixed order or procedure or principle)
irregular (contrary to rule or accepted order or general practice)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "regularity"):
cyclicity; periodicity (the quality of recurring at regular intervals)
methodicalness; orderliness (the quality of appreciating method and system)
uniformity (a condition in which everything is regular and unvarying)
evenness; invariability (a quality of uniformity and lack of variation)
even spacing (regularity of spacing)
steadiness (the quality of being steady--regular and unvarying)
Antonym:
irregularity (not characterized by a fixed principle or rate; at irregular intervals)
Derivation:
regular (in accord with regular practice or procedure)
regular (relating to a person who does something regularly)
regular (not deviating from what is normal)
regular (in accordance with fixed order or procedure or principle)
regular (conforming to a standard or pattern)
regular (occurring at fixed intervals)
regular (regularly scheduled for fixed times)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A property of polygons: the property of having equal sides and equal angles
Synonyms:
geometrical regularity; regularity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("regularity" is a kind of...):
balance; correspondence; symmetricalness; symmetry ((mathematics) an attribute of a shape or relation; exact reflection of form on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane)
Derivation:
regular (symmetrically arranged)
Context examples:
For he argued thus: that the two half brains being left to debate the matter between themselves within the space of one skull, would soon come to a good understanding, and produce that moderation, as well as regularity of thinking, so much to be wished for in the heads of those, who imagine they come into the world only to watch and govern its motion: and as to the difference of brains, in quantity or quality, among those who are directors in faction, the doctor assured us, from his own knowledge, that it was a perfect trifle.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
But the beauty and regularity of the new town of Edinburgh, its romantic castle and its environs, the most delightful in the world, Arthur’s Seat, St. Bernard’s Well, and the Pentland Hills, compensated him for the change and filled him with cheerfulness and admiration.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The correspondence flourished famously, and letters flew to and fro with unfailing regularity all through the early spring.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It being then just dinner-time, we went, first into the great kitchen, where every prisoner's dinner was in course of being set out separately (to be handed to him in his cell), with the regularity and precision of clock-work.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Take one day; share it into sections; to each section apportion its task: leave no stray unemployed quarters of an hour, ten minutes, five minutes—include all; do each piece of business in its turn with method, with rigid regularity.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
A considerable flight of steps landed them in the wilderness, which was a planted wood of about two acres, and though chiefly of larch and laurel, and beech cut down, and though laid out with too much regularity, was darkness and shade, and natural beauty, compared with the bowling-green and the terrace.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
In the middle was a large rack, with angles answering to every partition of the manger; so that each horse and mare ate their own hay, and their own mash of oats and milk, with much decency and regularity.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
"No more raisins, Demi. They'll make you sick," says Mamma to the young person who offers his services in the kitchen with unfailing regularity on plum-pudding day.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
On this occasion she was so much disturbed in mind as to find it necessary to open the bedroom door, and make a course for herself, comprising the full extent of the bedrooms from wall to wall; and while Mr. Dick and I sat quietly by the fire, she kept passing in and out, along this measured track, at an unchanging pace, with the regularity of a clock-pendulum.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Henry Crawford had too much sense not to feel the worth of good principles in a wife, though he was too little accustomed to serious reflection to know them by their proper name; but when he talked of her having such a steadiness and regularity of conduct, such a high notion of honour, and such an observance of decorum as might warrant any man in the fullest dependence on her faith and integrity, he expressed what was inspired by the knowledge of her being well principled and religious.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
