integral: Meaning and Definition of

in•te•gral

Pronunciation: (in'ti-grul, in-teg'rul), [key]
— adj.
  1. of, pertaining to, or belonging as a part of the whole; constituent or component: integral parts.
  2. necessary to the completeness of the whole: This point is integral to his plan.
  3. consisting or composed of parts that together constitute a whole.
  4. entire; complete; whole: the integral works of a writer.
  5. pertaining to or being an integer; not fractional.
  6. pertaining to or involving integrals.
—n.
  1. an integral whole.
    1. Also calledRiemann integral.the numerical measure of the area bounded above by the graph of a given function, below by the x-axis, and on the sides by ordinates drawn at the endpoints of a specified interval; the limit, as the norm of partitions of the given interval approaches zero, of the sum of the products of the function evaluated at a point in each subinterval times the length of the subinterval.
    2. a primitive.
    3. any of several analogous quantities. Cf. improper integral, line integral, multiple integral, surface integral.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
See also: