unitaryadj.n.
/ˈjuːnᵻt(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈjunəˌtɛri/ A. adj.† 3. Crystallography. With reference to the theories of R. J. Haüy: designating a crystal formed by the removal of a single row of particles from a more primitive precursor. Obsolete. rare.Haüy hypothesized that crystalline forms are made up of rows of minute cuboid particles.
1. Philosophy and Theology. Of, relating to, characterized by, or based on unity; unified, inclusive; holistic.
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the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > metaphysics > ontology > [adjective] > of branches of > monistic
unitary?1790
Unitarian1845
monistic1860
monistical1890
monist1916
?1790 J. Stewart Revol. of Reason 197 Philosophers, who are sensible of their unitary and eternal interest with nature.
1847 Harbinger 16 Jan. 88/2 A unitary religion, embodying the Judeao-Christian doctrine of Universal Love, shines..far in advance of its actual institutions.
1893 C. B. Upton Bases Relig. Belief 298 A unity of substance which..connects every part with the unitary life of the whole.
1926 J. C. Smuts Holism & Evol. v. 108 The fundamental concept of Holism will bring us nearer to that unitary or monistic conception of the universe.
1941 A. C. Bouquet Compar. Relig. v. 50 Some individuals prefer a pluralist, others a unitary conception of reality.
1989 R. Tong Feminist Thought v. 149 They offered a unitary theory of human development, not dualistic theories of male and female development.
2007 K. Flikschuh Freedom v. 117 A more unitary, less divisive understanding of liberal freedom.
2.
a. Of the nature of a unit, indivisible; spec. (of a person) having the separate existence or individual character of a unit.
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > one > [adjective] > existing as one thing
monadical1642
monadic1788
unitary1803
unit1870
1803 B. Boothby in tr. J. Racine Britannicus Pref. 19 The slightest deviation from truth, of all things the most simple and unitary, diverges into infinite error.
1865 J. Grote Exploratio Philosophica Pt. I i. 88 Whether..we are to be considered as having a locally distributable, or on the other hand concentrated and unitary, feeling self.
1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 379/1 Indirect proofs of a universe of pure and unitary Being.
a1901 F. W. H. Myers Human Personality (1903) I. p. xxvi Each man is at once profoundly unitary and almost infinitely composite.
1967 P. H. Smith in L. Holmes Odhams New Motor Man. vi. 160/1 When access is required to the clutch or gearbox on cars having unitary construction of engine and transaxle,..the complete unit must be removed.
2004 R. Norman On Humanism iii. 76 The idea of the human subject as a unitary self has no explanatory value.
b. Serving as a unit of measurement or calculation. Cf. unit n. and adj. Compounds 1c.
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the world > relative properties > measurement > [adjective] > serving as a unit of measurement
unitary1833
1833 J. Narrien Hist. Acct. Astron. xxii. 482 One forty millionth part of this circumference..is the value of the unitary measure of length now employed in France.
1889 Sci. Amer. 60 304/1 A wind pressure of 1,200 pounds for the same unitary distance is allowed for.
1913 J. Cox Beyond Atom vii. 103 It must be some multiple of the unitary charge carried by an ion.
2008 M. L. Latash Synergy vii. 288 Each neuron was assigned a vector of a unitary length pointing in its preferred direction.
c. Of a sound: simple, uncompounded.
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1875 W. D. Whitney Life & Growth Lang. iv. 56 We have altered their original unitary sounds.
1934 Amer. Anthropologist 36 630 The problem of providing a unitary symbol rather than a digraph for unitary sounds arises over and over again.
2014 R. D. Woodard Textualization Greek Alphabet v. 146 The fixed Greek inventory of consonant sounds did not contain among its members a unitary sound /ks/.
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the world > matter > chemistry > crystallography (general) > other reactions or processes > [adjective] > decrement > crystals experiencing decrement
unitary1810
binary1816
1810 Philos. Mag. 35 273 The crystal is called..Unitary, when it undergoes only a single decrement by one row.
4.
a. Politics. Of or relating to a system of government or administration in which the powers of the separate constituent parts are vested in a central body, as opposed to two or more tiers of jurisdiction, authority, or responsibility.
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > one > unity or undividedness > [adjective]
unitary1822
Unitarian1893
1822 tr. J. Simond Trav. Switzerland 69 in R. Phillips New Voy. & Trav. VII When the people were summoned to accede to the new unitary constitution [Fr. constitution unitaire],..the Niderwaldians..resolved to resist.
1847 Tait's Edinb. Mag. 14 560 The parcelled and the associative systems... With the latter the economies of unitary habitation..might be obtained.
1861 J. R. Lowell E Pluribus Unum in Prose Wks. (1890) V. 49 The United States are not a German Confederation, but a unitary and indivisible nation.
1893 Contemp. Rev. 799 The unitary movement in the latter country [sc. Italy].
1900 N.Y. Times 27 Dec. 5/5 The various sections into which the Cuban Constitutional Convention was divided some weeks ago..are gradually getting together on the basis of a unitary Government, which restricted suffrage.
1908 Proc. Amer. Polit. Sci. Assoc. 5 37 (note) The term federal government is not used in contrast to state government, but as indicating the general system of divided jurisdiction existing in such countries as the United States or Canada, in contradistinction to the unitary governments of the United Kingdom and France.
1929 Times 2 Nov. 7/5 A reaction against parliamentarism..in favour of a ‘totalitarian’ or unitary state, whether Fascist or Communist.
1994 W. A. Bogart Courts & Country i. 18 Many of the fathers of Confederation would have preferred a unitary government.
2002 T. Nairn Pariah ii. 18 A ‘unitary system’ averse to plural or contesting power.
b. spec. Chiefly British. Designating or relating to a single administrative division of local government established in parts of the United Kingdom (and subsequently in New Zealand) in place of a two-tier system of local councils; usually in unitary authority, unitary council.
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1936 R. C. K. Ensor England, 1870–1914 ix. 296 A special effect of the County Councils Act was that London acquired for the first time since its vast modern expansion a popularly elected unitary authority in the shape of the L.C.C.
1969 Daily Tel. 12 June 23 (caption) The proposed eight new provincial regions and the 61 huge unitary councils recommended by the Royal Commission.
1969 Daily Tel. 12 June 23/2 The Commission's recommendations are for..fifty-eight new local government areas, covering both town and country—described as unitary areas.
1973 M. Foot Aneurin Bevan II. vii. 267 Bevan..envisaged all-purpose authorities which..would be smaller and more truly local than the so-called unitary authorities of later schemes.
1995 Independent 4 Oct. (Suppl.) 14/1 There may now be four unitary councils where previously there was one county.
1997 Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) (Nexis) 27 June 5 The possibility of replacing the Canterbury Regional Council with a unitary authority should be explored.
2005 Daily Tel. 24 Nov. 26/5 All of Wales and Scotland are divided into unitary authorities. In Wales, this has meant the re-emergence of names such as Flintshire.
5.
a. Of an alphabet: consisting or composed of a single letter or symbol for each sound. Now somewhat rare.
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society > communication > writing > system of writing > [adjective] > symbolic > one letter one sound
unitary1846
biunique1941
1846 Harbinger 19 Sept. 235/1 Universal Unity contemplates unity of language, and that the first step towards it, is the adoption of a Unitary Alphabet.
1874 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. IV. iv. 1339 Professor Whitney's Unitary Alphabet.
1990 D. Ó Cróinín & D. Ganz tr. B. Bischoff Lat. Palaeography b. ii. vi. 112 The principle of the unitary alphabet, which in the classical scripts was generally respected, is only rarely observed.
b. Chemistry. Designating or relating to a system of chemical notation in which molecules are viewed primarily as whole units, each representing a particular arrangement of atoms, rather than as compounds of more elementary substances. Now historical.The unitary system of chemistry, pioneered by C. F. Gerhardt and A. Laurent (and frequently compared with the earlier, dualistic system of J. J. Berzelius), also involved a reassessment of the atomic weights of certain elements and resulted in a simplification of many chemical formulae.
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the world > matter > chemistry > atomic chemistry > [adjective] > relating to molecules > regarding molecules as units
unitary1855
1855 W. Odling tr. A. Laurent Chem. Method ii. 62 We call the formulæ, as simplified in the above manner, unitary [Fr. unitaires], in opposition to the dualistic or additive formulæ.
1880 E. Cleminshaw tr. C. A. Wurtz Atomic Theory 84 This was at that time—perhaps improperly—called the unitary system.
1904 F. P. Venable Study Atom iv. 152 The unitary system of Gerhardt was coming in, displacing the dualism of Berzelius.
2009 G. Kichigina Imperial Lab. iix. 172 Glebov, a thoroughly medical man became interested in the unitary system of types advanced by Gerhardt and Laurent in the 1850's.
c. Designating an arithmetical procedure in which a given relationship between several quantities is used to determine how setting one quantity equal to one changes the value of the others.
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1863 Educ. Times June 53/1 Mr. McLeod said the method adopted by him..was known as the unitary system.
1865 A. K. Isbister First Bk. Arithm. ii. 119 It is called the Unitary System, because..the learner reasons from the given number to unity, and then from unity..up to the required number.
1908 H. S. Hall & F. H. Stevens School Arithm. 135 The process is known as Reduction to the Unit, or the Unitary Method.
1968 Times 23 Mar. 5/5 Calculating this figure by the unitary method he said five tons were picked up during a cleaning operation covering 250 acres.
2008 J. Quinn Goodnight Ballivor xiii. 65 In arithmetic we struggled with the Unitary Method, Simple Interest and Area.
6. Forming a unit with something.
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the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or fact of uniting or being united > [adjective] > formed into or forming a unit
unitized1793
unitary1851
unital1894
1851 J. R. Morell tr. C. Fourier Passions Human Soul II. iii. §2 vi. 244 The conjunction of the seven rays, whence springs the colour white.., unitary with the colors whereof it is the collection [Fr. unitaire avec les couleurs dont elle est l'assemblage].
1859 J. R. Lowell in Atlantic Monthly Feb. 243/2 [Shakespeare] seems in some strange way unitary with human nature itself.
1948 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 14 Sept. 464/2 Each oscillatable driver element having a hub portion and a sprocket unitary with said hub portion.
2008 K. K. Wright Calif. Income Tax Man. xx. 562 The second requirement..is that the affiliated entity is unitary with the other members of the group.
7. Mathematics. Originally: designating a matrix or substitution (substitution n. 5b) for which the modulus of its determinant is equal to one (now disused). In later use: involving or relating to unitary matrices (unitary matrix n. (b) at Compounds) or unitary groups.
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > matrix mechanics > [noun] > unitary matrix
unitary matrix1882
unitary1891
the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > matrix mechanics > [adjective] > involving unitary matrix
unitary1891
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [adjective] > of array > relating to matrices
unitary1891
matrical1900
matric1921
matricial1924
1891 Q. Jrnl. Pure & Appl. Math. 25 291 A process which is precisely analogous to that employed by Dedekind and Klein in the case of real unitary substitutions.
1908 H. Hilton Introd. Theory Groups Finite Order iii. 16 The substitution A is called..unitary if AA′ = 1.
1941 G. Birkhoff & S. MacLane Surv. Mod. Algebra ix. 255 A linear transformation T of the space is unitary if it preserves lengths.
1975 Physics Bull. Apr. 176/2 Strong interactions among nucleons are invariant under a group of unitary symmetry transformation which changes protons into neutrons and vice versa.
2009 G. I. Lehrer & D. E. Taylor Unitary Refl. Groups p. i. A unitary reflection is a linear transformation of a complex vector space... Intuitively, it resembles the transformation an image undergoes when it is viewed through a kaleidoscope.
B. n.
With the. That which is unitary.
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the world > relative properties > wholeness > [noun] > that which is whole
integral1620
integrity1620
wholenessa1681
unitarya1842
integera1848
a1842 W. E. Channing Perfect Life (1888) 64 Man loves the Universal, the Unchangeable, the Unitary.
1966 Science 12 Aug. 707/2 Calculate everything in terms of the experimental mass and then take the limit, and the apparent difficulty that the unitary is violated temporarily seems to disappear.
1991 C. M. Johnston Necessary Wisdom iii. 37 A bias towards unity,..in identification..with historical times when the unitary was naturally preeminent, means taking sides in the whole.
2008 P. Heelas Spiritualities of Life i. i. 45 Despite the importance attached to the quest for the unitary, however, the Romantics generally attached too much value to the creativity of unique selfhood.
Compounds
unitary group n. Mathematics a group (group n. 7) consisting of all unitary matrices of a given size and in which the operation of the group is matrix multiplication.
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > matrix mechanics > [noun] > unitary matrix > group of
unitary group1921
1921 W. A. Manning Primitive Groups iii. 65 Conjugate imaginaries of the corresponding substitutions of the irreducible unitary group G'.
1977 Canad. Jrnl. Math. 29 1157 We can get results in unitary groups which are analogous to those obtained for orthogonal groups.
2011 J. Strom Mod. Class. Homotopy Theory xxxii. 686 We need to talk about unitary groups for other complex inner product spaces.
unitary matrix n. Mathematics †(a) (in quot. 1882) a matrix in which only those entries forming the principle diagonal may be non-zero (obsolete); (b) a matrix having the property that the result of multiplying it by the transpose of its complex conjugate is the identity matrix.
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > matrix mechanics > [noun] > unitary matrix
unitary matrix1882
unitary1891
1882 E. Barnes in Johns Hopkins Univ. Circular 1 179/1 The more general but allied theory of the different genera and species of the roots of unitary matrices.
1931 Math. Assoc. Amer. 38 507 If A is a real unitary matrix the definition is equivalent to the usual definition of elementary vector analysis.
2011 L. Wolfenstein & J. P. Silva Exploring Fund. Particles 254 A unitary matrix is used to relate one set of basic states to another.
unitary symmetry n. Physics invariance under a unitary group, esp. a group consisting of all unitary matrices of a given size and having determinants equal to one; (in later use) a model which approximates the strong interactions of elementary particles by means of such invariance.
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > matrix mechanics > [noun] > unitary matrix > group of > symmetry of
unitary symmetry1961
1961 Nuovo Cimento 21 872 Recent papers have dealt with the introduction of unitary symmetry, i.e. invariance under the three-dimensional unitary group.
1966 Illus. London News 4 June 22/4 There is a scheme, called unitary symmetry, which groups many of the known particles in patterns and can predict where others may be found.
2011 O. M. Boyarkin Adv. Particle Physics I. ix. 165 The above-mentioned considerations apply only to the idealized case of the exact unitary symmetry. In reality, the SU(3)-symmetry is very approximate.
unitary tax n. U.S. a corporate tax calculated as a proportion of a company's worldwide earnings.Certain countries or states levy unitary taxes on firms or corporations operating within their jurisdiction in order to prevent tax avoidance through the transference of income to jurisdictions with lower (or no) income tax.
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1977 Washington Post 14 Aug. a8/4 Brown is moving to alleviate concerns of multinational companies over the state's ‘unitary tax’.
1984 Miami Herald 6 Apr. 22 a/3 When the governor crawfishes out of his ill-advised unitary tax (his great tax-reform promise), the greedy ones might try to increase property taxes again.
2003 D. L. Scott Wall St. Words (ed. 3) 395 Unitary taxes are instituted by governments to foil firms that use creative accounting techniques to transfer their income to states or countries with low income-tax rates.
unitary taxation n. U.S. a system of corporate taxation involving the levying of unitary taxes.
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1977 Register (Orange County, Calif.) 16 June 28/1 (headline) Unitary Taxation Debate.
1979 Economist 7 July 91/2 Unitary taxation (purists call it combined or consolidated income reporting)..hits a company not on profits made in a given state but on a percentage of the parent's total (multi-state or world-wide) income.
1998 L. Eden Taxing Multinationals i. 36 Unitary taxation has been little used in practice.
Derivatives
ˈunitarily adv. in a unitary manner; with respect to being unitary.
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > one > [adverb]
particularly1398
singlea1450
singlerlyc1475
individually1612
numerically1651
monadically1794
in singles1826
unitarily1844
the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > matrix mechanics > [adverb]
unitarily1844
1844 P. Godwin Pop. View Doctr. C. Fourier v. 42 Attraction is the general law. Written on the heart of all, it reveals perpetually and unitarily the Will of God.
1889 C. C. Massey tr. C. Du Prel Philos. Mysticism I. iii. 136 Physiologists reject the soul, because they would explain man unitarily, in which they are quite right.
1932 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 54 149 Similar unitary matrices are..always unitarily equivalent.
1971 Times 15 July 4/5 It [sc. a global telephone exchange orbiting the Earth] was possible, practical and realistic only as part of a unitarily managed world system.
2011 C. Thornhill Sociol. Constit. ii. 111 Most early modern states struggled unitarily to integrate the diverse social interests.
ˈunitariness n. rare
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > one > [noun] > condition of being
onenesseOE
onehoodc1225
unityc1330
onlepihead1340
oneheadc1350
singlertyc1400
onliheada1425
uniona1513
singularity1583
singleness1597
singularness1650
oneship1656
unit1670
onefoldness1674
unicity1691
unitude1841
monadity1844
unitarinessa1866
unitarity1922
a1866 J. Grote Treat. Moral Ideals (1876) 27 [Must not] the plant..have..a sort of feeling to the extent of its unitariness of organization?
1992 English 41 131 Unitariness is replaced in Raine's play by the multiplying of worlds.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.?1790