binary

From Late Latin bīnārius (“consisting of two”), from Latin bīnī (“two-by-two, pair”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪ.nə.ɹi/, /ˈbaɪ.nɛɹ.i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪ.nə.ɹɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪnɛɹi, -aɪnəɹi

binary (comparative more binary, superlative most binary)

1. Being in a state of one of two mutually exclusive conditions such as on or off, true or false, molten or frozen, presence or absence of a signal.
   • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

     Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.

   Binary states are often represented as 1 and 0 in computer science.

2. (logic) Concerning logic whose subject matter concerns binary states.
3. (arithmetic, computing) Concerning numbers and calculations using the binary number system.
4. Having two equally important parts; related to something with two parts.

   Two ingredients are combined in a binary poison.

   A binary statistical distribution has only two categories.

5. (mathematics, programming, computer engineering) Of an operation, function, procedure, or logic gate, taking exactly two operands, arguments, parameters, or inputs; having domain of dimension 2.

   Division of reals is a binary operation.

6. (computing) Of data, consisting coded values (e.g. machine code) not interpretable as plain or ASCII text (e.g. source code).

   He downloaded the binary distribution for Linux, then burned it to DVD.

7. (comparable) Focusing on two mutually exclusive conditions.

   He has a very binary understanding of gender.

• (arity, adicity, rank): dyadic
• (logic of binary states): Boolean
• (related to something with two parts): double, twin; see also Thesaurus:dual
• (of calculations with binary numbers): base-2

• non-binary
• (arbitrary data): ASCII, text

• unary
• ternary

binary (countable and uncountable, plural binaries)

1. A thing which can have only (one or the other of) two values.
   • 2012, Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation (→ISBN), page 51:

     The correlation between warmth and cold is an internal one where the existence of one depends on and is defined by the other. Hence, the yin-yang binary as a correlative binary of light-shade or warmth-cold [...]

   • 2012, Scott L. Baugh, Latino American Cinema (→ISBN):

     The “in” versus “out” of this sociological model certainly carries to the admittedly simplistic binary of “good” versus “bad” of stereotypes in fictional works and the scholarly approaches to them.

2. (mathematics, computing, uncountable) The bijective base-2 numeral system, which uses only the digits 0 and 1.
3. (computing) An executable computer file.
4. (astronomy) A satellite system consisting of two stars or other bodies orbiting each other.

• (base 2 numeral system): base 2
• (system of two stars): binary star, double star

• (computing): non-binary

• binary-coded decimal
• visual binary
• X-ray binary

• -ary
• decimal
• hexadecimal
• octal

• brainy