MEANING
1. Forming a single, undivided whole rather than a collection of separate entities.
2. Describing a governmental system in which ultimate governing authority is held by a central government.
Use it for
questioning an account that treats a complex concept as one undivided thing; describing an integrated whole; distinguishing unity from several separately operating partsDistinguishes an undivided whole from a system in which governing authority is ultimately centralized. Academic functions: Theory / Conceptual Language.
Words that belong together
- a unitary concept
- a unitary account
- a unitary system
On the page
The critique questions whether identity can be treated as a unitary concept.
The model assumes a unitary decision-maker rather than several actors with different goals.
A unitary state can delegate substantial functions without becoming a federal system.
The comparison separates constitutional authority from the practical level of local autonomy.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- unitary
Usage notes
Attributive or predicative. Normally no comparative or superlative when describing a single unit or constitutional type. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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