What is "ternary"

Ternary \Ter"na*ry\, n.; pl. Ternaries. A ternion; the number three; three things taken together; a triad.

Some in ternaries, some in pairs, and some single.
--Holder.

Ternary \Ter"na*ry\, a. [L. ternarius, fr. terni. See Tern, a.]

1. Proceeding by threes; consisting of three; as, the ternary number was anciently esteemed a symbol of perfection, and held in great veneration.

2. (Chem.) Containing, or consisting of, three different parts, as elements, atoms, groups, or radicals, which are regarded as having different functions or relations in the molecule; thus, sodic hydroxide, NaOH, is a ternary compound.

"threefold," early 15c., from Late Latin ternarius "consisting of three," from terni "three by three," from ter "thrice," which is related to tres "three" (see three).

a. 1 Made up of three things; treble, triadic, triple, triplex 2 Arranged in groups of three 3 (context mathematics English) To the base three 4 (context mathematics English) Having three variables 5 (context chemistry English) Containing, or consisting of, three different parts, as elements, atoms, groups, or radicals, which are regarded as having different functions or relations in the molecule. n. A group of three things; a trio, threesome or tierce

1. adj. having three units or components or elements; "a ternary operation"; "a treble row of red beads"; "overcrowding made triple sessions necessary"; "triple time has three beats per measure"; "triplex windows" [syn: treble, triple, triplex]

2. n. the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one [syn: three, 3, III, trio, threesome, tierce, leash, troika, triad, trine, trinity, ternion, triplet, tercet, terzetto, trey, deuce-ace]

Ternary (from Latin ternarius) is an adjective meaning "composed of three items". It can refer to:

• Ternary numeral system, a base-3 counting system
  • Balanced ternary, a positional numeral system, useful for comparison logic
• Ternary logic, a logic system with the values true, false, and some other value
• Ternary signal, a signal that can assume three significant values
• Ternary computer, a computer using a ternary numeral system
• Ternary tree, a tree data structure in computer science
  • Ternary search tree, a ternary (three-way) tree data structure of strings
• Ternary search, a computer science technique for finding the minimum or maximum of a function
• Ternary heap, a data structure in computer science
• Ternary plot or ternary graph, a plot that shows the ratios of three proportions
• Ternary relation, a finitary relation in which the number of places in the relation is three
• Ternary operation, an operation that takes three parameters
• Ternary complex, a complex formed by the interaction of three molecules
• Ternary compound, a type of chemical compound
• Ternary form, a form used for structuring music
• Ternary Golay code, a perfect [11, 6, 5] ternary linear code
• Ternary name for any taxon below the rank of species