residual

1. 1.

   something left after other parts have been taken away

   “there was no remainder”

   “he threw away the rest”

   “he took what he wanted and I got the balance”

   Synonymsremainderbalanceresidueresiduumrest

   Broaderpart

   Narrowerleftover
2. 2.

   (often plural) a payment that is made to a performer or writer or director of a television show or commercial that is paid for every repeat showing

   “he could retire on his residuals”

   Broaderpayment

   plural

1. 1.

   relating to or indicating a remainder

   “residual quantity”

   Synonymsresiduary

Other forms of residual

plural

residuals·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about residual

What does residual mean?

residual means "something left after other parts have been taken away". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in residual?

residual has 4 syllables: re-sid-u-al. The stress falls on "sid". In IPA it is /ɹɪˈzɪdʒuəl/.

What is another word for residual?

Close synonyms include remainder, balance, residue, residuum, rest. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is residual a common word?

residual is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.