monad

Definition

One thing, one being, one item.

Etymology

From Latin monas (“unit”) (from Ancient Greek μονάς (monás), from μόνος (mónos), from Proto-Indo-European *men-). By surface analysis, mono- + -ad.

Example Sentences

• "Hence Leibnitz, who looked upon things as noumena, after denying them everything like external relation, and therefore also composition or combination, declared that all substances, even the component parts of matter, were simple substances with powers of representation, in one word, monads."
• "“If we are to embark upon speculation”, said Goethe, continuing his discourse, “then I really do not see why the monad to which we owe Wieland's appearance on our planet should be unable in its new condition to enter into the highest combinations that are possible in this universe."
• "Pythagoras considered numbers as the essence and principle of all things, and attributed to them a real and distinct existence; so that, in his view, they were the elements out of which the universe was constructed. […] The "Monad" or unit he regarded as the source of all numbers."