Dictionary
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. Arith.pertaining to or being an integer; not fractional.
6. Math.pertaining to or involving integrals.
—
n.
1. an integral whole.
2. Math.
a. Also called
Riemann 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.
b. a primitive.
c. 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.
