functional
/ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃənəl/adjective, noun
functional is spelled F-U-N-C-T-I-O-N-A-L: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,752nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, functional means “In good working order” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in functional?
| Letters | 10: F-U-N-C-T-I-O-N-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,752nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is functional?
Functional appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,752nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce functional?
- /ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃənəl/
- /ˈfʌŋkt͡ʃnəl/
Functional has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-functional.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of functional
- more functional comparative
- most functional superlative
- functionals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does functional mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
In good working order.
- 2
Useful; serving a purpose, fulfilling a function.
That sculpture is not merely artistic, but also functional: it can be used as a hatrack.
- 3
Only for functional purposes, notably in architecture.
A functional construction element generally must meet higher technical but lower aesthetical requirements.
- 4
Of or relating to one's role or office; official.
functional responsibilities
- 5
Characterizing functioning in environment, being symptoms that do not presuppose alteration of organic structure.
- 6
Optimized for all-around physiological benefit.
functional coffee
- 7
Of or relating to a function or functions.
- 8
Having semantics defined purely in terms of mathematical functions, without side-effects.
noun
- 1
A function that takes a function as its argument; more precisely, a function whose argument varies in a space of (real- or complex-valued) functions and whose value belongs to a monodimensional space.
An example of a functional is the definite integration of integrable real functions in a real interval.
- 2
A scalar-valued linear function on a vector space.
- 3
An object encapsulating a function pointer (or equivalent).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Functional in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fonctionnel |
| German | funktional, Funktions-, funktionell, Gebrauchs-, operativ , Funktional |
| Portuguese | funcional |
| Spanish | operativo , útil , funcional |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does functional come from?
From function + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).