fundamental (n.)

  1. any factor that could be considered important to the understanding of a particular business; fundamentals include a company's growth, revenues, earnings, management, and capital structure'

  2. the lowest tone of a harmonic series

    [ Syn: fundamental frequency , first harmonic ]

    fundamental (adj.)

  1. serving as an essential component; a cardinal rule; the central cause of the problem; an example that was fundamental to the argument; computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure

    [ Syn: cardinal , central , key , primal ]

  2. being or involving basic facts or principles; the fundamental laws of the universe; a fundamental incomatibility between them; these rudimentary truths; underlying principles

    [ Syn: rudimentary , underlying ]

  3. far-reaching and thoroughgoing in effect especially on the nature of something; the fundamental revolution in human values that has occurred; the book underwent fundamental changes; committed the fundamental error of confusing spending with extravagance; profound social changes

    [ Syn: profound ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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