duality

[ doo-al-i-tee, dyoo- ]
See synonyms for duality on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a dual state or quality.

  2. Mathematics. a symmetry within a mathematical system such that a theorem remains valid if certain objects, relations, or operations are interchanged, as the interchange of points and lines in a plane in projective geometry.

Origin of duality

1
1350–1400; Middle English dualitie<Late Latin duālitās.See dual, -ity

Other words from duality

  • non·du·al·i·ty, noun

Words Nearby duality

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use duality in a sentence

  • He saw her struggles and her tears… the mysterious duality working to possess her soul.

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood
  • They were a duality the constitutive forces of which alternately assumed supremacy.

  • duality is the root, out of which alone, for mortals, happiness can spring.

  • From the top to the bottom of the sexual scale the new being springs invariably from a duality.

  • I shall merely pause here in my narrative to indicate this duality, this perplexing mixing of personality.

    Before Adam | Jack London

British Dictionary definitions for duality

duality

/ (djuːˈælɪtɪ) /


nounplural -ties
  1. the state or quality of being two or in two parts; dichotomy

  2. physics the principle that a wave-particle duality exists in microphysics in which wave theory and corpuscular theory are complementary. The propagation of electromagnetic radiation is analysed using wave theory but its interaction with matter is described in terms of photons. The condition of particles such as electrons, neutrons, and atoms is described in terms of de Broglie waves

  1. geometry the interchangeability of the roles of the point and the plane in statements and theorems in projective geometry

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012