unitary

adjective

1. Having the quality of oneness. If yes–no questions are CPs containing a null yes–no question operator (a null counterpart of whether) in spec-CP, we can arrive at a unitary characterisation of questions as CPs with an interrogative specifier.
2. of a system of government or administration That concentrates power in a single body, rather than sharing it with more local bodies. a unitary authority
3. of an algebra That contains an identity element.

   Similar: unital

4. of a matrix or operator Whose inverse is equal to its adjoint. The eigenvectors of an orthogonal or unitary operator, corresponding to different eigenvalues, are orthogonal.

Opposite: confederal

noun unitaries

1. UK A unitary council. Outside the metropolitan areas most councils (English and Welsh counties, London boroughs, Scottish and Welsh unitaries, and Northern Ireland districts) are now elected en bloc every four years.
2. A unitary matrix or operator. 1980, Michael Reed, Barry Simon, Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics, Volume 1: Functional Analysis, Revised and Expanded Edition page 243, Since ergodicity and mixing are expressible in terms of the induced Koopman unitaries they are not additional invariants.