Monad may refer to:

Philosophy

Monad (philosophy) The term ''monad'' () is used in some cosmic philosophy and cosmogony to refer to a most basic or original substance. As originally conceived by the Pythagoreans, the Monad is therefore Supreme Being, divinity, or the totality of all things. ...

, a term meaning "unit" **

Monism Monism attributes oneness or singleness () to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., in Neoplatonis ...

, the concept of "one essence" in the metaphysical and theological theory **

Monad (Gnosticism) In some Gnostic systems, the supreme being is known as the Monad, the One, the Absolute, Aiōn Teleos (the Perfect Aeon, ), Bythos (Depth or Profundity, ), Proarchē (Before the Beginning, ), Hē Archē (The Beginning, ), the Ineffable Parent, ...

, the most primal aspect of God in Gnosticism * ''Great Monad'', an older name for the ''

taijitu In Chinese philosophy, a ''taijitu'' () is a Character (symbol), symbol or diagram () representing ''Taiji (philosophy), taiji'' () in both its monist (''Wuji (philosophy), wuji'') and its Dualism in cosmology, dualist (yin and yang) forms in a ...

'' symbol * ''Monadologia Physica'', by

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

* '' La Monadologie'', by Gottfried Leibniz, a book about a basic unit of perceptual reality * ''

Monas Hieroglyphica ''Monas Hieroglyphica'' (or ''The Hieroglyphic Monad'') is a book by John Dee, the Elizabethan magus and court astrologer of Elizabeth I of England, published in Antwerp in 1564. It is an exposition of the meaning of an esoteric symbol that he in ...

'', a 1564 book by John Dee describing a symbol of his own invention

Mathematics, science and technology

* Monad (biology), a historical term for a simple unicellular organism *

Monad (category theory) In category theory, a branch of mathematics, a monad is a triple (T, \eta, \mu) consisting of a functor ''T'' from a category to itself and two natural transformations \eta, \mu that satisfy the conditions like associativity. For example, if F, ...

, a construction in category theory *

Monad (functional programming) In functional programming, monads are a way to structure computations as a sequence of steps, where each step not only produces a value but also some extra information about the computation, such as a potential failure, non-determinism, or side e ...

, functional programming constructs that capture various notions of computation * Monad (homological algebra), a 3-term complex *

Monad (nonstandard analysis) In nonstandard analysis, a monad or also a halo is the set of points infinitesimally close to a given point. Given a hyperreal number ''x'' in R∗, the monad of ''x'' is the set :\text(x)=\. If ''x'' is finite (limited), the unique real number ...

, the set of points infinitesimally close to a given point *

Monad shell PowerShell is a shell program developed by Microsoft for task automation and configuration management. As is typical for a shell, it provides a command-line interpreter for interactive use and a script interpreter for automation via a language ...

, the code name for the PowerShell command line interface for Microsoft Windows

Fictional entities

* Monads, megastructures in Robert Silverberg's 1971 novel ''

The World Inside ''The World Inside'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert Silverberg, published in 1971. The novel originally appeared as a series of shorter works in 1970 and 1971, all but one published in ''Galaxy'', including the Hugo nomi ...

'' * Monad Proxy, a character in the 2006 anime series ''Ergo Proxy'' * John Monad, the title character of the 2007 television series ''

John from Cincinnati ''John from Cincinnati'' is an American drama television series, set against the surfing community of Imperial Beach, California. It aired on HBO from June 10 to August 12, 2007. Overview ''John from Cincinnati'' is the result of a collaborati ...

'' * Monad/Monado, a sword in the 2010 videogame ''

Xenoblade Chronicles ''Xenoblade Chronicles'' is a series of action role-playing games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. The series began with the original '' Xenoblade Chronicles'' game, published for the Wii in 2010 in Japan, and released in ...

Other uses

Monad (music) In music, a monad is a single note or pitch.Castine, Peter (1994). ''Set Theory Objects: Abstractions for Computer-Aided Analysis and Composition of Serial and Atonal Music'', p.33. . The Western chromatic scale The chromatic scale (or twelve ...

, a single note or pitch *

Monad University Monad University is a private university located in NCR region, Hapur, Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is t ...

, in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India * The emblem of the

technocracy movement The technocracy movement was a social movement active in the United States and Canada in the 1930s which favored technocracy as a system of government over representative democracy and partisan (politics), partisan politics. Historians associate ...

Philosophy

Mathematics, science and technology

Fictional entities

Other uses

See also