In
mathematical writing, the term strict refers to the property of excluding equality and equivalence and often occurs in the context of
inequality and
monotonic functions.
It is often attached to a technical term to indicate that the exclusive meaning of the term is to be understood. The opposite is non-strict, which is often understood to be the case but can be put explicitly for clarity. In some contexts, the word "proper" can also be used as a mathematical synonym for "strict".
Use
This term is commonly used in the context of
inequalities — the phrase "strictly less than" means "less than and not equal to" (likewise "strictly greater than" means "greater than and not equal to").
More generally, a
strict partial order,
strict total order
In mathematics, a total or linear order is a partial order in which any two elements are comparable. That is, a total order is a binary relation \leq on some set X, which satisfies the following for all a, b and c in X:
# a \leq a ( reflexiv ...
, and
strict weak order exclude equality and equivalence.
When comparing numbers to zero, the phrases "strictly positive" and "strictly negative" mean "positive and not equal to zero" and "negative and not equal to zero", respectively. In the context of functions, the adverb "strictly" is used to modify the terms "monotonic", "increasing", and "decreasing".
On the other hand, sometimes one wants to specify the inclusive meanings of terms. In the context of comparisons, one can use the phrases "non-negative", "non-positive", "non-increasing", and "non-decreasing" to make it clear that the inclusive sense of the terms is being used.
The use of such terms and phrases helps avoid possible ambiguity and confusion. For instance, when reading the phrase "''x'' is positive", it is not immediately clear whether ''x'' = 0 is possible, since some authors might use the term ''positive'' loosely to mean that ''x'' is not less than zero. Such an ambiguity can be mitigated by writing "''x'' is strictly positive" for ''x'' > 0, and "''x'' is non-negative" for ''x'' ≥ 0. (A precise term like ''non-negative'' is never used with the word ''negative'' in the wider sense that includes zero.)
The word "proper" is often used in the same way as "strict". For example, a "
proper subset
In mathematics, set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they are unequal, then ''A'' is a proper subset of ...
" of a
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
''S'' is a
subset
In mathematics, set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they are unequal, then ''A'' is a proper subset of ...
that is not equal to ''S'' itself, and a "
proper class" is a class which is not also a set.
See also
*
Strictly positive measure
*
Monotonic function
*
Mod about non-strict monotonic distribution.
References
{{PlanetMath attribution, id=6397, title=strict
Mathematical terminology