unary
1.
A description of an {operator} which takes one argument, e.g. the unary minus operator which negates its
argument.
2. Base one. A number base with only one
digit, namely zero, and which can therefore only be used to
express the number zero. Attempting to add one to zero
results in an infinite sequence of carries. Numbers in unary
notation can be represented particularly efficiently however
since each digit requires no storage.
(1998-07-29)