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I saw a few questions and answers recently that wrote "monotonous" instead of "monotonic." Then I Googled and see a ton of usages of "monotonous" in M.SE instead of monotonic.

It occurred to me this might be a locale issue. Are there any locales that actually use "monotonous" for "monotonic" in English-language mathematics, or is this always wrong?

Thomas Andrews
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    This seems to me to be always wrong. – Potato Apr 18 '13 at 19:12
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    Here are my two cents: in Italian the two words are homographic, but not homophonic. Namely, the words are "monòtona" for "monotonous" (feminine), and "monotòna" for "monotonic" (still feminine). They are usually written without accents, though. – A.P. Apr 18 '13 at 19:16
  • @A.P. Yeah, I suspect a lot of the occurrences are translations, but I saw a few that seem like they are quotes. Perhaps they are just written as quotes but actually translations from the original quotes. – Thomas Andrews Apr 18 '13 at 19:21
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    Something monotonic is quite monotonous, so I think it is fair enough. I wouldn't say using "monotonous" is wrong; I would rather say it is unconventional. Searching for "monotonous sequence" in Google Scholar gave me a couple published mathematical articles that use the term for example. Perhaps, saying "monotonically" is easier than saying "monotonously," that is why the former became more common. Now that I have used both words many times, both seem alien to me. – Lord Soth Apr 18 '13 at 19:25
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    I don't agree that monotonic things are monotonous. :) the Cantor Function is monotonic, but I wouldn't call it monotonous. :) Also, there are plenty of things which are monotonous which are not monotonic - the sine curve is monotonous, for example, in the sense of "boring the longer you view it." @LordSoth – Thomas Andrews Apr 18 '13 at 19:34
  • Since you corrected one of my answers where I incorrectly used 'monotonous' for 'monotonic' (cf. http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/359290/prove-the-converges-of-the-followin-sequence-and-find-the-limit/359302#359302) I checked many sources and it appeared that in a mathematical context it should always be 'monotonic'. – Matt L. Apr 18 '13 at 19:47
  • Yeah, I started back-correcting lots of old questions, until I saw a few that looked like quotes, and I stopped at those. No English Dictionary I've found allows "monotonous" for "monotonic," but I didn't search far, so I thought I'd ask here before continuing my purge of old M.SE posts. :) @Matt – Thomas Andrews Apr 18 '13 at 19:51
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    In German it's monoton and it is often hard for us non-native speakers to guess which ending a Latin or Greek word will have in English. Moreover, the German word monoton has both meanings: monotonous and monotonic. – Martin Apr 18 '13 at 19:52
  • no ................... – Stefan Smith Apr 18 '13 at 23:00

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It is always wrong. It is a clear error, which a native English-speaking mathematician would never commit.

TonyK
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