unary
/ˈjuːnəɹi/ adjective, noun
Forms unaries
- adjective Consisting of or involving a single element or component.
- adjective (mathematics, programming, computer engineering) Of an operation, function, procedure, or logic gate, taking exactly one operand, argument, parameter, or input; having domain of dimension 1. “Negation is a unary operation.”
- noun (mathematics) The unary, or bijective base-1, numeral system.
- noun (information theory) Unary coding, an entropy encoding for natural numbers.
Etymology
From Latin ūnus (“one”) + -ary, on the pattern of binary, ternary, etc.
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “unary”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details