noun
- Biology.
- any simple, single-celled organism.
- any of various small, flagellate, colorless ameboids with one to three flagella, especially of the genus Monas.
- Chemistry. an element, atom, or group having a valence of one.Compare dyad(def 3), triad(def 2a).
- Philosophy.
- (in the metaphysics of Leibniz) an unextended, indivisible, and indestructible entity that is the basic or ultimate constituent of the universe and a microcosm of it.
- (in the philosophy of Giordano Bruno) a basic and irreducible metaphysical unit that is spatially and psychically individuated.
- any basic metaphysical entity, especially having an autonomous life.
- a single unit or entity.
adjective
- being or relating to a monad
- logic maths (of an operator, predicate, etc) having only a single argument place
noun
- plural -ads or -ades (-əˌdiːz) philosophy
- any fundamental singular metaphysical entity, esp if autonomous
- (in the metaphysics of Leibnitz) a simple indestructible nonspatial element regarded as the unit of which reality consists
- (in the pantheistic philosophy of Giordano Bruno) a fundamental metaphysical unit that is spatially extended and psychically aware
- a single-celled organism, esp a flagellate protozoan
- an atom, ion, or radical with a valency of one
n.“unity, arithmetical unit,” 1610s, from Late Latin monas (genitive monadis), from Greek monas “unit,” from monos “alone” (see mono-). In Leibnitz’s philosophy, “an ultimate unit of being” (1748). Related: Monadic. n.
- An atom or a radical with a valence of 1.
- A single-celled microorganism, especially a protozoan of the genus Monas.
- Any of the four chromatids of a tetrad that, after the first and second meiotic divisions, separate to become the chromosomal material in each of the four daughter cells.