normaux

Normaux is the masculine plural form of the French adjective normal, meaning standard, typical, or in conformity with a rule or expectation. It is used to describe masculine plural nouns, such as résultats normaux (normal results), paramètres normaux (normal parameters), or comportements normaux (normal behaviors). The form comes from Latin norma and entered French via Old French norme; like other adjectives, normaux agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies.

In mathematical and scientific usage, normaux appears in compound terms with masculine nouns. For example, vecteurs normaux (normal vectors) and plans normaux (normal planes) describe objects perpendicular to a reference surface or plane. The masculine plural form is preferred when the noun it modifies is masculine and plural.

In everyday French, the feminine plural form normales is used with feminine nouns, as in lois normales (normal laws or normal distributions) or variables normales. The choice between normaux and normales thus reflects the gender and number of the noun being described.

Overall, normaux functions as the standard masculine plural variant of normal, appearing across domains from everyday description to technical terminology to express standardness or perpendicularity, depending on the context.