monad

[mon-ad, moh-nad]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR monad ON THESAURUS.COM

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.

Origin of monad

1605–15; < Late Latin monad- (stem of monas) < Greek (stem of monás): unity. See mon-, -ad¹

Related formsmo·nad·ic

[muh-nad-ik] /məˈnæd ɪk/, mo·nad·i·cal, mo·nad·al, adjectivemo·nad·i·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for monad

one, unit, atom

Examples from the Web for monad

Historical Examples of monad

Is the Pythagorean image of the harmony, or that of the monad, the truer expression?
Phaedo
Plato
Pythagoras held that the unit or monad is the principle and end of all.
Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing
George Barton Cutten
In what then do these unities differ from the Uniqueness (or Monad)?
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 2
Plotinos (Plotinus)
By wanting to be, the monad makes itself the elephant, the eagle, or the man.
Exotics and Retrospectives
Lafcadio Hearn
There is nothing of caprice, of peculiarity, in the content of the monad.
Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding
John Dewey

British Dictionary definitions for monad

monad

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

Also called (for senses 1, 2): monas

Derived Formsmonadical, adjectivemonadically, adverb

Word Origin for monad

C17: from Late Latin monas, from Greek: unit, from monos alone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for monad

"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.

monad in Medicine

monad

[mō′năd′]

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.

Related formsmo•nad′ic (mə-năd′ik) null adj.