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-ical

American  

  1. a combination of -ic and -al, used in forming adjectives from nouns (rhetorical ), providing synonyms to words ending in -ic (poetical ), and providing an adjective with additional meanings to those in the -ic form (economical ).

-ical British  

suffix

  1. a variant of -ic

    economical

    fanatical
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • -ically suffix

Etymology

Origin of -ical

Middle English < Latin -icālis. See -ic, -al 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Atypic -ical: off type; not of the usual form.

From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.