monad

American  

[mon-ad, moh-nad] / ˈmɒn æd, ˈmoʊ næd /

noun

1. Biology.

   1. any simple, single-celled organism.

   2. any of various small, flagellate, colorless ameboids with one to three flagella, especially of the genus Monas.

2. Chemistry. an element, atom, or group having a valence of one.

3. Philosophy.

   1. (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.

   2. (in the philosophy of Giordano Bruno) a basic and irreducible metaphysical unit that is spatially and psychically individuated.

   3. any basic metaphysical entity, especially having an autonomous life.

4. a single unit or entity.

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monad British  

/ ˈmɒnæd, ˈməʊ- /

noun

1. philosophy

   1. any fundamental singular metaphysical entity, esp if autonomous

   2. (in the metaphysics of Leibnitz) a simple indestructible nonspatial element regarded as the unit of which reality consists

   3. (in the pantheistic philosophy of Giordano Bruno) a fundamental metaphysical unit that is spatially extended and psychically aware

2. a single-celled organism, esp a flagellate protozoan

3. an atom, ion, or radical with a valency of one

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Other Word Forms

• monadal
  adjective
• monadic
  adjective
• monadical
  adjective
• monadically
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of monad

First recorded in 1605–15; from Late Latin monad- (stem of monas), from Greek monás (stem monád- ) “unity, monad”; see mon-, -ad ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

monad

Each monad has its own destiny, and it acts and moves entirely of its own accord.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 29, 2016

There she found another "bantling of fate," whose Nordic features suggested that he was an atavism, or at least a primeval anachronism; in any case, a monad.

From Time Magazine Archive

Do not their amœboid spores and plasmodia ally them at once to the amœba and his congeners, to all the monad, rhizopodal world?

From The North American Slime-Moulds A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species by Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

In Leibniz's monadology, since each monad mirrored the whole universe, there was in each perspective a "sensibile" which was an appearance of each thing.

From Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell

From angels and demons, the Rosacrusian would approach even to the Divinity; calculating the infinity by his geometry, he reveals the nature of the Divine Being, as “a pure monad, including in itself all numbers.”

From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Isaac Disraeli

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