parity

¹

[par-i-tee]

noun

1. equality, as in amount, status, or character.

2. equivalence; correspondence; similarity; analogy.

   She and her brother always seemed like day and night to me, but I'm starting to see a real parity of nature between them.

3. Finance.

   1. equivalence in value in the currency of another country.

   2. equivalence in value at a fixed ratio between moneys of different metals.

4. Physics.

   1. a property of a wave function, expressed as +1 or −1 and noting the relation of the given function to the function formed when each variable is replaced by its negative, +1 indicating that the functions are identical and −1 that the second function is the negative of the first.

   2. Also called intrinsic parity. a number +1 or −1 assigned to each kind of elementary particle in such a way that the product of the parities of the particles in a system of particles multiplied by the parity of the wave function describing the system is unchanged when particles are created or annihilated.

5. a system of regulating prices of farm commodities, usually by government price supports, to provide farmers with the same purchasing power they had in a selected base period.

6. Computers.,  the condition of the number of items in a set, particularly the number of bits per byte or word, being either even or odd: used as a means for detecting certain errors.

parity

²

[par-i-tee]

noun

Obstetrics.

1. the condition or fact of having borne offspring.

2. para.

parity

¹

/ ˈpærɪtɪ /

noun

1. equality of rank, pay, etc

2. close or exact analogy or equivalence

3. finance

   1. the amount of a foreign currency equivalent at the established exchange rate to a specific sum of domestic currency

   2. a similar equivalence between different forms of the same national currency, esp the gold equivalent of a unit of gold-standard currency

4. equality between prices of commodities or securities in two separate markets

5. physics

   1. a property of a physical system characterized by the behaviour of the sign of its wave function when all spatial coordinates are reversed in direction. The wave function either remains unchanged ( even parity ) or changes in sign ( odd parity )

   2. P. a quantum number describing this property, equal to +1 for even parity systems and –1 for odd parity systems See also conservation of parity

6. maths a relationship between two integers. If both are odd or both even they have the same parity; if one is odd and one even they have different parity

7. (in the US) a system of government support for farm products

parity

²

/ ˈpærɪtɪ /

noun

1. the condition or fact of having given birth

2. the number of children to which a woman has given birth

parity

1. The property of a physical system that entails how the system would behave if the coordinate system were reversed, each dimension changing sign from x, y, z to −x, −y, −z. If a system behaves in the same way when the coordinate system is reversed, then it is said to have even parity; if it does not, it is said to have odd parity. For bosons, the antiparticle of any given particle has the same parity, odd or even, as that particle. For fermions, the antiparticle has the opposite parity.

2. See also conservation law parity conjugation

3. A quantum number, either +1 or −1, that mathematically describes this property.

4. The number of 1's in a piece of binary code, generally taken as the quality of odd or even rather than as a specific number. The parity of packets of binary data is often transmitted along with the data to help detect whether the value of any bits has been altered.

Word History and Origins

Origin of parity¹

First recorded in 1565–75; from French parité, and Late Latin paritāt- (stem of paritās “equality”); par ¹, -ity

Origin of parity²

First recorded in 1875–80; from Latin par(ere) “to bring forth, bear” + -ity; -parous ( def. ), parent

Word History and Origins

Origin of parity¹

C16: from Late Latin pāritās; see _par

Origin of parity²

C19: from Latin parere to bear

Example Sentences

According to American estimates, Beijing will reach rough parity with the U.S. in deployed nuclear warheads by the mid-2030s.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Plainly this genre has quite a distance to travel to achieve representational parity that doesn’t come at the cost of justice.

Read more on Salon

Naomi Long has been speaking after the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt announced on Thursday that he has been given approval to award pay parity to healthcare workers here.

Read more on BBC

But lawyers for the SPF said it was "of deep concern" that a similar invite had not been extended to the officers involved to "reflect parity".

Read more on BBC

That means neither party has an upper hand, a parity reflected in dozens of interviews with voters across the sprawling region.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• consistency 
• uniformity 
• unity