# unity

Pronunciation: say "YOO-ni-tee" US /ˈjunɪti/, UK /ˈjuːnɪti/

## Noun

1. The quality of forming a single, undivided whole, as a well-made novel or a united empire does.
   - Simple: The state of being one whole thing instead of many separate parts.
   - _Critics praised the novel's unity, noting that no scene felt detached from the whole._
   - _The reforms threatened the unity of the empire, which soon fractured into rival states._
2. A state of agreement or harmony between people or groups.
   - Simple: A situation where people agree and work well together.
   - _The senator called for unity across party lines on the disaster relief bill._
   - _Years of disputes over grazing rights had eroded any unity among the villages._
3. A single, complete whole, regarded as self-contained rather than as a collection of parts.
   - Simple: One complete thing that is whole in itself and not divided into parts.
   - _In her philosophy, the self is not a bundle of impressions but a genuine unity._
   - _The architect conceived the house and its garden as one unity rather than two separate projects._
4. The number one, or an element that leaves other elements unchanged when combined with them by a specified operation.
   - Simple: In math, another name for the number one.
   - _The probabilities of all possible outcomes must sum to unity._
   - _In this ring, the identity matrix serves as the unity for multiplication._
5. Any of the three classical rules of drama (unity of action, unity of place, and unity of time) requiring a single plot, a single setting, and events confined to one day.
   - Simple: One of three old rules for plays about keeping one story, one place and one day.
   - _Racine observed the unity of time strictly, compressing the tragedy into a single day._
   - _Modern playwrights rarely respect the unity of place, shifting scenes freely from act to act._
6. The form of consensus by which a Quaker business meeting signals that a decision has been reached; dissenting members must explicitly stand aside, possibly being recorded in the minutes.
   - Simple: In a Quaker meeting, the moment when the group accepts a decision together.
   - _The clerk tested for unity before recording the minute on the property sale._
   - _Although she had doubts, she stood aside so the meeting could move forward in unity._
7. In property law, any of the four conditions of time, title, interest, and possession that must all be present for a joint tenancy to exist.
   - Simple: In law, the special features shared by people who own property together as joint owners.
   - _The deed failed to create the unity required for a joint tenancy, so the court treated the owners as tenants in common._
   - _Each unity (of time, title, interest, and possession) must exist for the joint tenancy to stand._

## Origin

From Middle English unite, borrowed via Anglo-Norman and Old French unité from Latin ūnitās, built on ūnus ("one") with a noun-forming suffix. It goes back ultimately to Proto-Indo-European *óynos ("one, single"), making it distantly related to "one" and "an," and it replaced the native Old English ānnes ("oneness").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/unity (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).