Dictionary

adicity

Noun

adicity (plural adicities)

(logic, mathematics, computer science) The number of arguments or operands a function or operation takes. For a relation, the number of domains in the corresponding Cartesian product.
- 1997, Robert W. Burch, 13: Peirce's Reduction Thesis, Nathan Houser, Don D. Roberts, James Van Evra (editor), Studies in the Logic of Charles Sanders Peirce, Indiana University Press, page 233 ↗,
  Equivalently, it says that all relations of adicity greater than 3 may be reduced to relations of adicities 1, 2, and/or 3. The negative component of the Thesis says, first, that relations of adicity 2 may not in general be constructed from (reduced to) relations exclusively of adicity 1; and, second, that relations of adicity 3 and greater may not in general be constructed from (equivalently: reduced to) relations exclusively of adicities 1 and/or 2.
- 2004, Susan Rothstein, Predicates and Their Subjects, Springer, page 47 ↗,
  What can be predicted is that the adicity of any syntactic predicate is the same: since its adicity is a grammatical and not a thematic fact, semantic differences between predicates cannot affect their grammatical structure.
- 2007, Helier J. Robinson, Relation Philosophy of Mathematics, Science, and Mind, Sharebooks Publishing, 2nd Edition, page 68 ↗,
  We have seen that every relation, without exception, necessarily has a term set, and the necessary properties of simplicity and an adicity: relations without these are impossible, merely nominal.
(chemistry, obsolete) Valence.

Synonyms

(number of arguments) adinity, arity, type, rank

Related terms

adic, -adic

Translations

French: arité
German: Stelligkeit
Italian: arietà

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