unitary

adj 1: relating to or characterized by or aiming toward unity; "the

unitary principles of nationalism"; "a unitary

movement in politics"

2: of or pertaining to or involving the use of units; "a

unitary method was applied"; "established a unitary

distance on which to base subsequent calculations"

3: (government) characterized by or constituting a form of

government in which power is held by one central

authority; "a unitary as opposed to a federal form of

government" [ant: {federal}]

4: having the indivisible character of a unit; "a unitary

action"; "spoke with one voice" [syn: {one(a)}]

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)