unary
1. <programming> (or "monadic") A description of a function or operator
which takes one argument, e.g. the unary minus operator which negates its
argument. The term is part of the same sequence as nullary and binary.
2. <data, humour> 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.
(2001-02-25)
Nearby terms:
UML « uML « UMTS « unary » UNC » UNCL » UNCOL
