complementarity (redirected from complementarities)

com·ple·men·tar·i·ty  (kmpl-mn-tr-t)

n.

The state or quality of being complementary: "This is where the complementarity of the masculine and the feminine so acutely emerges. They are the necessary poles of a dialectic process" Therese Namenek.

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complementarity  (kmpl-mn-târ-t)

The concept that the underlying properties of entities (especially subatomic particles) may manifest themselves in contradictory forms at different times, depending on the conditions of observation; thus, any physical model of an entity exclusively in terms of one form or the other will be necessarily incomplete. For example, although a unified quantum mechanical understanding of such phenomena as light has been developed, light sometimes exhibits properties of waves and sometimes properties of particles (an example of wave-particle duality). See also uncertainty principle.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	complementarity - a relation between two opposite states or principles that together exhaust the possibilities ungradable opposition - an opposition that has no intermediate grade; either one or the other
	2.	complementarity - the interrelation of reciprocity whereby one thing supplements or depends on the other; "the complementarity of the sexes" reciprocality, reciprocity - a relation of mutual dependence or action or influence