Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, governed by, or acquired through practice or action, rather than theory, speculation, or ideals: gained practical experience of sailing as a deck hand.
- adj. Manifested in or involving practice: practical applications of calculus.
- adj. Actually engaged in a specified occupation or a certain kind of work; practicing.
- adj. Capable of or suitable to being used or put into effect; useful: practical knowledge of Japanese. See Usage Note at practicable.
- adj. Concerned with the production or operation of something useful: Woodworking is a practical art.
- adj. Level-headed, efficient, and unspeculative.
- adj. Being actually so in almost every respect; virtual: a practical disaster.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Relating or pertaining to action, practice, or use: opposed to theoretical, speculative, or ideal. Engaged in practice or action; concerned with material rather than ideal considerations.
- Educated by practice or experience: as, a practical gardener.
- Derived from experience: as, practical skill; practical knowledge.
- Used, or such as may advantageously be used, in practice; capable of being used or turned to account; contributing to one's material advantage; possessing utility.
- Exemplified in practice.
- Spent in practice; devoted to action or material pursuits.
- In effect and result; to all intents and purposes; equivalent to (something) in force or influence; virtual: as, a victory may be a practical defeat.
Wiktionary
- n. UK that part of an exam or series of exams in which the candidate has to demonstrate their practical ability
- adj. Based on practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis
- adj. Being likely to be effective and applicable to a real situation; able to be put to use
- adj. Of a person, having skills or knowledge that are practical
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to practice or action.
- adj. Capable of being turned to use or account; useful, in distinction from
ideal ortheoretical . - adj. Evincing practice or skill; capable of applying knowledge to some useful end
- adj. Derived from practice.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or put to a practical purpose or use
- adj. guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory
- adj. concerned with actual use or practice
- adj. being actually such in almost every respect
Etymologies
- From practic + -al (Wiktionary)
- Middle English practicale, from Medieval Latin prācticālis, from prāctica, practice; see practicable. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In arranging the parts of speech, I conceive it to be the legitimate object of the practical grammarian, to consult _practical convenience_.”
“That certain human souls, living on this practical Earth, should think to save themselves and a ruined world by noisy theoretic demonstrations and laudations of _the_ Church, instead of some unnoisy, unconscious, but _practical, _ total, heart-and-soul demonstration of _a_ Church: this, in the circle of revolving ages, this also was a thing we were to see.”
“That certain human souls, living on this practical Earth, should think to save themselves and a ruined world by noisy theoretic demonstrations and laudations of _the_ Church, instead of some unnoisy, unconscious, but _practical_, total, heart-and-soul demonstration of a Church: this, in the circle of revolving ages, this also was a thing we were to see.”
Past and Present Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII.
“Bismarck opened debate on the subject on 17 November 1881 in the Imperial Message to the Reichstag, using the term practical Christianity43 to describe his program.”
“MARTIN: I think - now, I think the word - the term practical is probably better than logical.”
“There has recently sprung up a class of educational philosophers who would restrict the term practical education to those forms of knowledge or formulas of information which can be converted into cash equivalent on demand.”
From Slave to College President Being the Life Story of Booker T. Washington
“But while the student of Nature distinctly refuses to have his labours judged by their practical issues, unless the term practical be made to include mental as well as material good, he knows full well that the greatest practical triumphs have been episodes in the search after pure natural truth.”
“Financial support Cheng says other SCO members expect stronger economic and financial support from China, so President Hu will be discussing what else can be done within the SCO framework to promote what he described as practical economic cooperation.”
Voice of America: Analysts: Shanghai Cooperation Organization Flourishing, Thanks to Help from China
“Not forgotten among the practical is the cerebral at the conference, as in the case of “Negotiating a Green Mindset,” a workshop that will offer tools to the faithful few seeking to spread the word of sustainability.”
“He argues that once we have disciplined human reason to stay off that theoretical path, we are then in a position to make an affirmation of God on the basis of what he terms the practical, i.e., moral, use of reason.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘practical’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
SCIE - mathematics
The most frequent words in the titles of mathematical books and journals (www.sciencedirect.com)
nonparametric, nonparametric sta..., multivariate anal..., partial different..., multivariate, topology, stochastic, differential equa..., linear algebra, harmonic analysis, applied mathematics, combinatorial and 205 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Pickle and such
Words that end like pickle. Listed here because they're funny (because they end like pickle).
pickle, sparkle, yokel, tinkle, fickle, prickle, trickle, circle, snorkel, ensnorkel, chuckle, buckle and 137 more...
-
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
-
a test
this is a test list
test, paper, questions, practical, exam, score, pass, fail, litmus, pap smear, stroop, rorschach and 6 more...
-
Names Used to Describe Designer Bags
A list of words that describe specific types of fashion-centric bags.
clutch, tote, feedbag, carpetbag, hobo bag, crescent, bucket, minaudiere, muff handbag, evening bag, pouch, satchel and 5 more...
-
FYS100
Word discovery & discussion by CSUMB first-year students, to help with required texts.
trippy, bantam, patience, Roseto, Froth, legit, patronage, quarries, compatriot, intact, baby boomer, virtuosos and 35 more...
-
Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
WrightHandWords's Words
yclept, unction, prana, satya, abhyasa, vairagya, yoga, ashtanga, acronym, etymology, asana, widget and 286 more...
-
ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
-
adjectives
haughty, rueful, affable, unctuous, dispassionate, disaffected, glacial, daft, debilitating, mawkish, insipid, victorian and 131 more...
-
Red Pyramid
amulet, relic, hieroglyphics, decipher, ominous, curator, boomerang, vague, agitated, obelisk, linger, hereditary and 48 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for practical.
bilby "This is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s practical design of place of mass execution by firing squad that can also serve temporarily as storage for inflatable people."
- Henryk Fantazos, Instead of Architecture, Against Modern Art, 1 April 2011. Apr 22, 2011