multiplicative identity

noun

, Mathematics.

1. an identity that when used to multiply a given element in a specified set leaves that element unchanged, as the number 1 for the real-number system.

Word History and Origins

Origin of multiplicative identity¹

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

At a time when Florida is banning the acknowledgment of gender fluidity or any identity outside male and female, this subversive textbook unabashedly tells suggestible children that such things exist as “reciprocal identities,” “cofunction identities,” “additive identity property” and even “multiplicative identity property.”

From Washington Post

The number 1 in its multiplicative identity is practically bedridden, leaving other numbers unchanged: 6 times 1 equals 6.

From New York Times