Simplex

Quick meaning: Simplex is an adjective meaning (computing, telecommunications) Of a circuit or device: involving signals which travel in one direction at a time; unidirectional.

Meaning

(computing, telecommunications) Of a circuit or device: involving signals which travel in one direction at a time; unidirectional.

More Meanings

1. Of a polyploid organism: having one dominant allele at a given locus on all homologous chromosomes.
2. Synonym of heterozygous (“of an organism: having two different alleles in a given gene”).
3. (linguistics) Of a word: having no (derivational) affixes; simple, monomorphemic, uncompounded.
4. (originally and chiefly US) Of an apartment (or, sometimes, another type of property): having only one floor or storey; single-storey.
5. (anatomy, historical) Of an eye: (supposedly) having pigment on only the posterior surface of the iris and not the anterior surface, and thus appearing blue; this was later found to be inaccurate, as eye colour is due to the amount of pigment in the anterior surface of the iris; also, of eye pigmentation: present only on the posterior surface of the iris; and of a person: having eyes with this form of pigmentation.
6. (algebraic topology, geometry) A generalization of a triangle or tetrahedron to an arbitrary dimension, the generalization being the simplest possible convex polytope for a given dimension; more accurately, the convex hull of n+1 affinely independent points in n-dimensional space.
7. (dated) Having a single structure; not composite or complex; undivided, unitary.

Example Sentences

The word weak is a simplex. Its derivative weaken is not.

The question is: is 139. [“Priexal Vanja. ‘arrived Vanya’”] a simplex or is it a cleft structure in which all 'superfluous' constituents were deleted. […] The only indication that 139. is a simplex is the sentence intonation and the absence of a break between the verb and the subject.

Word Forms

• simplexes
• simplices
• simplicia

Synonyms for simplex

Depending on context, synonyms include monoplex, heterozygous, simple, unidirectional.

Antonyms for simplex

Common opposites include complex, duplex, bidirectional, polymorphemic.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include simple, unidirectional, simply, single, straightforward, easy.

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