Parity - Definition

n 1: (obstetrics) the number of liveborn children a woman has
delivered; "the parity of the mother must be considered";
"a bipara is a woman who has given birth to two children"
[syn: parity, para]
2: (mathematics) a relation between a pair of integers: if both
integers are odd or both are even they have the same parity;
if one is odd and the other is even they have different
parity; "parity is often used to check the integrity of
transmitted data"
3: (computer science) a bit that is used in an error detection
procedure in which a 0 or 1 is added to each group of bits so
that it will have either an odd number of 1's or an even
number of 1's; e.g., if the parity is odd then any group of
bits that arrives with an even number of 1's must contain an
error [syn: parity bit, parity, check bit]
4: (physics) parity is conserved in a universe in which the laws
of physics are the same in a right-handed system of
coordinates as in a left-handed system [syn: parity,
conservation of parity, space-reflection symmetry,
mirror symmetry]
5: functional equality