unity
Americannoun
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unities
plural
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the state of being one; oneness.
- Synonyms:
- individuality, singularity, singleness
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a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one.
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the state or fact of being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification.
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absence of diversity; unvaried or uniform character.
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oneness of mind, feeling, etc., as among a number of persons; concord, harmony, or agreement.
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Mathematics.
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the number one; a quantity regarded as one.
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(in literature and art) a relation of all the parts or elements of a work constituting a harmonious whole and producing a single general effect.
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one of the three principles of dramatic structure the three unities derived from Aristotelian aesthetics and formalized in the neoclassic canon in which a play is required to represent action as taking place in one day unity of time, as occurring within one place unity of place, and as having a single plot with a beginning, middle, and end unity of action.
noun
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the state or quality of being one; oneness
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the act, state, or quality of forming a whole from separate parts
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something whole or complete that is composed of separate parts
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mutual agreement; harmony or concord
the participants were no longer in unity
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uniformity or constancy
unity of purpose
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maths
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the number or numeral one
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a quantity assuming the value of one
the area of the triangle was regarded as unity
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the element of a set producing no change in a number following multiplication
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the arrangement of the elements in a work of art in accordance with a single overall design or purpose
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any one of the three principles of dramatic structure deriving from Aristotle's Poetics by which the action of a play should be limited to a single plot (unity of action), a single location (unity of place), and the events of a single day (unity of time)
Synonym Usage
See union.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of unity
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English unite, from Old French, from Latin ūnitās, from ūn(us) one + -itās -ity
Explanation
Unity is being together or at one with someone or something. It's the opposite of being divided. This is a word for togetherness or oneness. When the north won the Civil War, it assured the unity of the United States. Sports teams wear uniforms to show unity, and their fans wear team colors for the same reason. When a bunch of people act as one and are on the same page, they're displaying unity. When people are bickering and disorganized, there's no unity. In any group or cause, unity can be hard to find and maintain.
Vocabulary lists containing unity
Power Prefix: uni-
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Joyous Kwanzaa! Vocabulary Worth Celebrating
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Four Power Prefixes: anti-, con-, inter-, and uni-.
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama says he was inspired by the unity and camaraderie of rugby after spending part of his summer off-season training with French second tier side Provence.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Hearings “tend to be risky events when direct earnings-related information comes out or there is evidence of unity and possible government action,” the Evercore team said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
I stand with the people that are promoting kindness, unity, people that are away from this energy of dividing, and I think we need these sort of basic human elements more than ever before.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
The depiction of faith and unity extends beyond bloodlines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Like Julius Nyerere, Kaunda was worried about the lack of unity among South African freedom fighters and suggested that when Sobukwe emerged from jail, we might all join forces.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Not the least of those unities were political and historical ones.
From New York Times ● Jul. 10, 2020
They said, "Don’t worry about the facts, don’t worry about logic, think instead in terms of mystical unities and direct connections between the mystical leader and the people."
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2018
The lesson isn't that progress is inevitable, but that the possibility of making things better is always available to us when we accept that what unities us is greater than what divides us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2018
Like so many Golden Age mysteries, the original novel is essentially a closet drama, one that closely observes the theatrical unities of place, time and action.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2017
That utterance was the first real declaration of real war, and, in accordance with the dramatic unities of mighty events, the great soldier who made it, received the final sword of the Rebellion.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 12 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Miscellany by Robert Green Ingersoll
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
