dyad

dy·ad  (dd, -d)

n.

1. Two individuals or units regarded as a pair: the mother-daughter dyad.

2. Biology One pair of homologous chromosomes resulting from the division of a tetrad during meiosis.

3. Chemistry A divalent atom or radical.

4. Mathematics

a. A function that draws a correspondence from any vector u to the vector (v·u)w and is denoted vw, where v and w are a fixed pair of vectors and v·u is the scalar product of v and u. For example, if v = (2,3,1), w = (0,-1,4), and u = (a,b,c), then the dyad vw draws a correspondence from u to (2a + 3b + c)w.

b. A tensor formed from a vector in a vector space and a linear functional on that vector space.

adj.

Made up of two units.

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[From Greek duas, duad-, from duo, two; see dwo- in Indo-European roots.]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

dyad - two items of the same kind couplet, distich, duad, duet, duo, twain, twosome, brace, pair, span, yoke, couple fellow, mate - one of a pair; "he lost the mate to his shoe"; "one eye was blue but its fellow was brown" 2, II, two, deuce - the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number doubleton - (bridge) a pair of playing cards that are the only cards in their suit in the hand dealt to a player