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1. Sounding alone. [Obs.]
[sounds] intermixed with voice,
Choral or unison. Milton. 2. (Mus.) Sounded alike in pitch; unisonant; unisonous; as, unison passages, in which two or more parts
unite in coincident sound.
Unisonal
(U*nis"o*nal) a. Being in unison; unisonant. — U*nis"o*nal*ly, adv.
Unisonance
(U*nis"o*nance) n. [See Unisonant.] Accordance of sounds; unison.
Unisonant
(U*nis"o*nant) a. [Uni- + sonant. See Unison.] Being in unison; having the same degree
of gravity or acuteness; sounded alike in pitch.
Unisonous
(U*nis"o*nous) a. [See Unison.] Being in unison; unisonant. Busby.
Unit
(U"nit) n. [Abbrev. from unity.]
1. A single thing or person.
2. (Arith.) The least whole number; one.
Units are the integral parts of any large number. I. Watts. 3. A gold coin of the reign of James I., of the value of twenty shillings. Camden.
4. Any determinate amount or quantity (as of length, time, heat, value) adopted as a standard of measurement
for other amounts or quantities of the same kind.
5. (Math.) A single thing, as a magnitude or number, regarded as an undivided whole.
Abstract unit, the unit of numeration; one taken in the abstract; the number represented by 1. The term
is used in distinction from concrete, or determinate, unit, that is, a unit in which the kind of thing is
expressed; a unit of measure or value; as 1 foot, 1 dollar, 1 pound, and the like. — Complex unit (Theory
of Numbers), an imaginary number of the form a + b-1, when a2 + b2 = 1. — Duodecimal unit,
a unit in the scale of numbers increasing or decreasing by twelves. — Fractional unit, the unit of a
fraction; the reciprocal of the denominator; thus, ¼ is the unit of the fraction ¾. — Integral unit, the unit
of integral numbers, or 1. — Physical unit, a value or magnitude conventionally adopted as a unit
or standard in physical measurements. The various physical units are usually based on given units of
length, mass, and time, and on the density or other properties of some substance, for example, water.
See Dyne, Erg, Farad, Ohm, Poundal, etc. — Unit deme (Biol.), a unit of the inferior order or
orders of individuality. — Unit jar (Elec.), a small, insulated Leyden jar, placed between the electrical
machine and a larger jar or battery, so as to announce, by its repeated discharges, the amount of electricity
passed into the larger jar. — Unit of heat (Physics), a determinate quantity of heat adopted as a
unit of measure; a thermal unit Water is the substance generally employed, the unit being one gram
or one pound, and the temperature interval one degree of the Centigrade or Fahrenheit scale. When
referred to the gram, it is called the gram degree. The British unit of heat, or thermal unit, used by
engineers in England and in the United States, is the quantity of heat necessary to raise one pound
of pure water at and near its temperature of greatest density (39.1° Fahr.) through one degree of the
Fahrenheit scale. Rankine. — Unit of illumination, the light of a sperm candle burning 120 grains
per hour. Standard gas, burning at the rate of five cubic feet per hour, must have an illuminating power
equal to that of fourteen such candles. — Unit of measure (as of length, surface, volume, dry measure,
liquid measure, money, weight, time, and the like), in general, a determinate quantity or magnitude of the
kind designated, taken as a standard of comparison for others of the same kind, in assigning to them
numerical values, as 1 foot, 1 yard, 1 mile, 1 square foot, 1 square yard, 1 cubic foot, 1 peck, 1 bushel,
1 gallon, 1 cent, 1 ounce, 1 pound, 1 hour, and the like; more specifically, the fundamental unit adopted
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