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nilpotent

nil·po·tent

UK/nɪlˈpəʊtənt/ common

adjective

1.

equal to zero when raised to a certain power

Origin

From nil (“not any”) + potent (“having power”) with literal meaning “having zero power” - bearing Latin roots nil and potens. Coined in 1870, along with idempotent, by American mathematician Benjamin Peirce to describe elements of associative algebras.

Phrases

  • nilpotent algebra
  • nilpotent ideal
  • nilpotent orbit
  • nilpotent semigroup

Related words

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.