[syn: diseased, morbid, pathologic, pathological]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pathologic \Path`o*log"ic\, Pathological \Path`o*log"ic*al\, a.
[Gr. ?: cf. F. pathologique.]
1. Of or pertaining to pathology.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Med.) caused by or due to disease; abnormal; morbid; as,
pathological tissue; a pathological condition.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.] -- Path`o*log"ic*al*ly, adv.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
pathological
adj 1: of or relating to the practice of pathology;
"pathological laboratory" [syn: pathological,
pathologic]
2: caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition; "a
pathological liar"; "a pathological urge to succeed"
3: caused by or altered by or manifesting disease or pathology;
"diseased tonsils"; "a morbid growth"; "pathologic tissue";
"pathological bodily processes" [syn: diseased, morbid,
pathologic, pathological]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
19 Moby Thesaurus words for "pathological":
bad, cankered, contaminated, diseased, gangrened, gangrenous,
infected, morbid, mortified, peccant, poisoned, septic,
sphacelated, tainted, ulcerated, ulcerous, unhealthy, unsound,
unwholesome
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
pathological
adj.
1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly atypical of
normal expected input, esp. one that exposes a weakness or bug in whatever
algorithm one is using. An algorithm that can be broken by pathological
inputs may still be useful if such inputs are very unlikely to occur in
practice.
2. When used of test input, implies that it was purposefully engineered as
a worst case. The implication in both senses is that the data is
spectacularly ill-conditioned or that someone had to explicitly set out to
break the algorithm in order to come up with such a crazy example.
3. Also said of an unlikely collection of circumstances. ?If the network is
down and comes up halfway through the execution of that command by root,
the system may just crash.? ?Yes, but that's a pathological case.? Often
used to dismiss the case from discussion, with the implication that the
consequences are acceptable, since they will happen so infrequently (if at
all) that it doesn't seem worth going to the extra trouble to handle that
case (see sense 1).
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
pathological
1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly
atypical of normal expected input, especially one that exposes
a weakness or bug in whatever algorithm one is using. An
algorithm that can be broken by pathological inputs may still
be useful if such inputs are very unlikely to occur in
practice.
2. When used of test input, implies that it was purposefully
engineered as a worst case. The implication in both senses is
that the data is spectacularly ill-conditioned or that someone
had to explicitly set out to break the algorithm in order to
come up with such a crazy example.
3. Also said of an unlikely collection of circumstances. "If
the network is down and comes up halfway through the execution
of that command by root, the system may just crash." "Yes,
but that's a pathological case." Often used to dismiss the
case from discussion, with the implication that the
consequences are acceptable, since they will happen so
infrequently (if at all) that it doesn't seem worth going to
the extra trouble to handle that case (see sense 1).
[Jargon File]