unity

unity

See also: Unity

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman unité, unité, from Latin ūnitās, from ūnus (“one”) + noun of state suffix -itās, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one, single”), hence distantly related to one and an. Displaced native Old English ānnes (literally “oneness”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈjuːnɪtɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈjunɪti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

unity (countable and uncountable, plural unities)

1. (uncountable) Oneness; the state or fact of being one undivided entity.
   • 1846, E. A. Poe, The Philosophy of Composition

     If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression - for, if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and everything like totality is at once destroyed.

   • 2011 October 1, Saj Chowdhury, “Wolverhampton 1 - 2 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Alan Pardew's current squad has been put together with a relatively low budget but the resolve and unity within the team is priceless.

2. Agreement; harmony.
3. A single undivided thing, seen as complete in itself.
   • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p. 137:

     If a single day has brought us two or more experiences suitable to initiate a dream, the dream will unite references to them both into a single whole; it obeys a compulsion to form a unity [translating Einheit] out of them.

4. (drama) Any of the three classical rules of drama: unity of action (nothing should be admitted not directly relevant to the development of the plot), unity of place (the scenes should be set in the same place), and unity of time (all the events should be such as might happen within a single day).
5. (mathematics) The number 1 or any element of a set or field that behaves under a given operation as the number 1 behaves under multiplication.

   the cube roots of unity

6. (law) The peculiar characteristics of an estate held by several in joint tenancy.
7. (Quakerism) The form of consensus in a Quaker meeting for business which signals that a decision has been reached. In order to achieve unity, everyone who does not agree with the decision must explicitly stand aside, possibly being recorded in the minutes as doing so.

Synonyms

• (oneness): See also Thesaurus:oneness

Antonyms

• (oneness): plurality, multiplicity, disunity; see also Thesaurus:manyness

Derived terms

• Inity

Related terms

• unique
• unus

Translations

state of being one or undivided

Arabic: وَحْدَة‎ f (waḥda), اِتِّحَاد‎ (ar) m (ittiḥād) Armenian: միասնություն (hy) (miasnutʿyun) Belarusian: адзі́нства n (adzínstva), е́днасць f (jédnascʹ), згуртава́насць f (zhurtavánascʹ) Bengali: ইত্তিহাদ (bn) (ittihad) Bulgarian: еди́нство (bg) n (edínstvo), сплоте́ност (bg) f (sploténost) Catalan: unitat (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 統一／统一 (zh) (tǒngyī) Czech: jednota (cs) f Danish: enhed (da) c Dutch: eenheid (nl) f Esperanto: unueco Estonian: ühtsus, üksmeel Finnish: yhtenäisyys (fi), ykseys (fi) French: unité (fr) f German: Einheit (de) f Greek: ενότητα (el) f (enótita) Ancient: ἑνότης f (henótēs), μονότης f (monótēs) Hindi: एकता (hi) f (ektā), इत्तिहाद (hi) m (ittihād), एका (hi) m (ekā), ऐक्य (hi) m (aikya) Hungarian: egység (hu) Irish: aontas m Italian: unità (it) f Japanese: 団結 (ja) (だんけつ, danketsu), 統一 (ja) (とういつ, tōitsu) Korean: 단결(團結) (ko) (dan'gyeol), 단일(單一) (ko) (danil) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: یەکێتی‎ (yekêtî) Latin: ūnitās f Latvian: saliedētība f, vienotība f Lithuanian: vienybė f, vieningumas m Macedonian: единство n (edinstvo) Malay: perpaduan (ms) Malayalam: ഐക്യം (ml) (aikyaṃ), ഒരുമ (ml) (oruma), ഒത്തൊരുമ (ml) (ottoruma) Norwegian: Bokmål: enhet (no) m or f Nynorsk: einskap m Old English: ānnes f Polish: jedność (pl) f, łączność (pl) f Portuguese: unidade (pt) f Romanian: unire (ro), unitate (ro) f Russian: еди́нство (ru) n (jedínstvo), едине́ние (ru) n (jedinénije), сплочённость (ru) f (spločónnostʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: јединство n, једност f, једињење n, једноћа f Roman: jedinstvo (sh) n, jednost f, jedinjenje n, jednoća f Shor: пиригиш (pirigiş) Slovak: súdržnosť f, jednota f Slovene: enotnost f, sloga (sl) f Southern Altai: бирлик (birlik) Spanish: unidad (es) f Swahili: umoja (sw) Swedish: enhet (sv) Tagalog: pagkakaisa Telugu: ఐకమత్యం (te) (aikamatyaṁ), ఏకత్వం (te) (ēkatvaṁ) Turkish: birlik (tr) Ukrainian: є́дність (uk) f (jédnistʹ), згурто́ваність (uk) f (zhurtóvanistʹ), собо́рність f (sobórnistʹ) Welsh: undod m or f

single undivided thing

Bulgarian: единица (bg) f (edinica) Finnish: kokonaisuus (fi) Irish: aontas m

drama: any of the three classical rules of drama

Dutch: eenheid (nl) f Finnish: ykseys (fi) German: Einheit (de) f Greek: ενότητα (el) f (enótita) Hungarian: (hármas) egység Korean: 일치 (ko) (ilchi) Russian: еди́нство (ru) n (jedínstvo)

mathematics: something that behaves like the number 1 in multiplication

Bulgarian: едини́ца (bg) f (ediníca) Finnish: identiteettialkio German: Identität (de) f Greek: μονάδα (el) f (monáda) Russian: едини́ца (ru) f (jediníca)

law: the peculiar characteristics of an estate held by several in joint tenancy

Bulgarian: съвместно владение n (sǎvmestno vladenie)

See also

• (mathematics): identity element