unary operation

u·na·ry operation  (yn-r)

n.

A mathematical operation, such as the square root function and complex conjugation, that requires only one operand.

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[Blend of uni- and binary.]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

unary operation - an operation with exactly one operand monadic operation operation - (computer science) data processing in which the result is completely specified by a rule (especially the processing that results from a single instruction); "it can perform millions of operations per second"