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scalar

sca·lar

UK/ˈskeɪ.lə/ US/skeɪ.lɚ/ uncommon
adjective (1) noun (1)

adjective

1.

of or relating to a directionless magnitude

  • “scalar implicatures”

noun

1.

a variable quantity that cannot be resolved into components

Origin

Borrowed from Latin scālāris, adjectival form from scāla (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder, scale”), for *scadla, from scandere (“to climb”); compare scale. The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1846.

Phrases

  • scalar boson
  • scalar curl
  • scalar field
  • scalar function
  • scalar multiplication
  • scalar product
  • scalar triple product

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Pertaining to

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