unary

adj : consisting of or involving a single element or component;

"in a unary operation in a mathematical system one

element is used to yield a single result"

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)