| 释义 |
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2024dif•fer•en•tial /ˌdɪfəˈrɛnʃəl/USA pronunciation adj. - of or relating to difference.
n. [countable] - a difference or the amount of difference between comparable things:a wage differential between police and firefighters.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2024dif•fer•en•tial (dif′ə ren′shəl),USA pronunciation adj. - of or pertaining to difference or diversity.
- constituting a difference;
distinguishing;
distinctive:a differential feature. - exhibiting or depending upon a difference or distinction.
- Physicspertaining to or involving the difference of two or more motions, forces, etc.
- Mathematicspertaining to or involving a derivative or derivatives.
n. - a difference or the amount of difference, as in rate, cost, quantity, degree, or quality, between things that are comparable.
- Mechanical EngineeringAlso called differential gear. [Mach.]an epicyclic train of gears designed to permit two or more shafts to rotate at different speeds, as a set of gears in an automobile permitting the rear wheels to be driven at different speeds when the car is turning.
- Mathematics
- a function of two variables that is obtained from a given function, y = f(x), and that expresses the approximate increment in the given function as the derivative of the function times the increment in the independent variable, written as dy = f′(x)dx.
- any generalization of this function to higher dimensions.
- Business[Com.]
- the difference involved in a differential rate.
- See differential rate.
- Physicsthe quantitative difference between two or more forces, motions, etc.:a pressure differential.
- Medieval Latin differentiālis, equivalent. to differenti(a) difference + ālis -al
- 1640–50
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