Asymmetrical

How to spell asymmetrical

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce asymmetrical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does asymmetrical mean?

1. adjectiveHaving two sides or parts that do not match or balance each other.

Asymmetrical in a sentence

• The architect designed an asymmetrical facade with windows of different sizes on each side.

• Her new haircut was deliberately asymmetrical, longer on the left than the right.

Where does asymmetrical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek asymmetros, which meant 'having no common measure' or 'out of proportion'. It was built from the negative prefix a- 'not, without' attached to symmetros 'commensurate, well proportioned', itself formed from syn 'together' and metron 'a measure'. So the literal idea is 'not measured together', that is, two sides that do not match when measured against each other. English already had 'symmetry' and 'symmetrical' by the 1500s and 1600s, drawn through Latin and French from the same Greek source, and 'asymmetrical' followed as the natural negative form. The spelling trap lives in that shared root: just as 'symmetry' carries a doubled m where syn meets metron, 'asymmetrical' quietly keeps the same doubled m, and the y inherited from Greek upsilon is easy to forget under the unstressed first syllable.

How the word is built

• a- (not, without)
• sym- (together)
• metr (measure)
• -ical (adjective suffix)