Parity

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Parity \Par"i*ty\, n. [L. paritas, fr. par, paris, equal: cf. F.
     parit['e]. See {Pair}, {Peer} an equal.]
     1. The quality or condition of being equal or equivalent; a
        like state or degree; equality; equivalence; close
        correspondence; analogy; as, parity of reasoning. "No
        parity of principle." --De Quincey.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Equality of length and parity of numeration. --Sir
                                                    T. Browne.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Specifically: (Finance) Equivalence in value to the
        currency of another country.
        [PJC]
  
     3. (Physics) A property assigned to elementary particles,
        conceptualized as a form of symmetry, representing the
        fact that no fundamental distinctions can be observed
        between right-handed and left-handed systems of particles
        in their interactions, and supported by the typical
        observation that the total parity of a system is unchanged
        as particles are created or annihilated; however, certain
        interactions involving the weak force have been shown to
        violate the principle of conservation of parity.
        [PJC]
  
     4. (Physics) A property of the wave function of a system,
        which takes the value of +1 or -1, indicating whether the
        value of the wave function changes sign if each of the
        variables of the system is replaced by its negative.
        [PJC]
  
     5. (Med.) The condition of having borne a child or children,
        alive or dead.
        [PJC]
  
     6. (Math.) The property of being even or odd; as, 3 has odd
        parity, but 6 has even parity.
        [PJC]
  
     7. Hence: (Computers) The property of having an even or odd
        number of bits set to the value of 1 (as opposed to 0); --
        applied to bytes or larger groups of bits in a data
        structure. It is used mostly in the process of {parity
        checking}. The parity of a data structure can be changed
        by changing the value of the {parity bit}.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  parity
       n 1: (obstetrics) the number of live-born children a woman has
            delivered; "the parity of the mother must be
            considered"; "a bipara is a woman who has given birth to
            two children" [syn: {para}]
       2: (mathematics) a relation between a pair of integers: if both
          integers are odd or both are even they have the same
          parity; if one is odd and the other is even they have
          different parity
       3: (computer science) abit that is used in an error detection
          procedure in which a 0 or 1 is added to each group of bits
          so that it will have either an odd number of 1's or an
          even number of 1's; e.g., if the parity is odd then any
          group of bits that arrives with an even number of 1's must
          contain an error [syn: {parity bit}, {check bit}]
       4: (physics) parity is conserved in a universe in which the
          laws of physics are the same in a right-handed system of
          coordinates as in a left-handed system [syn: {conservation
          of parity}, {space-reflection symmetry}, {mirror symmetry}]
       5: functional equality

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  85 Moby Thesaurus words for "parity":
     accordance, agreement, alikeness, alliance, analogy, aping,
     approach, approximation, asking price, assimilation, balance,
     bearish prices, bid price, book value, bullish prices, call price,
     closeness, closing price, coequality, coextension, community,
     comparability, comparison, conformity, congruence, congruity,
     consistency, copying, correspondence, decline, equality, equation,
     equilibrium, equipoise, equipollence, equiponderance, equity,
     equivalence, equivalency, evenness, face value, fixed price,
     flash price, flurry, flutter, high, identity, imitation, issue par,
     issue price, justice, levelness, likeness, likening, low,
     market price, market value, metaphor, mimicking, nearness,
     nominal value, offering price, opening price, par, par value,
     parallelism, poise, price, proportion, put price, quotation,
     quoted price, rally, resemblance, sameness, semblance,
     settling price, similarity, simile, similitude, simulation,
     stated value, swings, symmetry, uniformity
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  parity
       
           An extra bit added to a {byte} or
          {word} to reveal errors in storage (in {RAM} or {disk}) or
          transmission.  Even (odd) parity means that the parity bit is
          set so that there are an even (odd) number of one bits in the
          word, including the parity bit.  A single parity bit can only
          reveal single bit errors since if an even number of bits are
          wrong then the parity bit will not change.  Moreover, it is
          not possible to tell which bit is wrong, as it is with more
          sophisticated {error detection and correction} systems.
       
          See also {longitudinal parity}, {checksum}, {cyclic redundancy
          check}.
       
          (1996-03-01)