one-many

[ wuhn-men-ee; usually read as wuhn-tuh-men-ee ]

adjective

, Logic, Mathematics.

1. (of a relation) having the property that an element may be assigned to several elements but that given an element, only one may be assigned to it.

one-many

adjective

1. maths logic (of a relation) holding between more than one ordered pair of elements with the same first member

Word History and Origins

Origin of one-many¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

The phrase “Socrates is mortal” may be thus defined: “There is at least one instant t such that t has not to Socrates the one-many relation R which is the converse of the relation ‘exists at,’ and all instants following t have not the relation R to Socrates, and there is at least one instant t´ such that neither t´ nor any instant preceding t´ has the relation R to Socrates.”

From Project Gutenberg

The relation of father to son is called a one-many relation, because a man can have only one father but may have many sons; conversely, the relation of son to father is called a many-one relation.

From Project Gutenberg

One Love At Studio One is an amazing two-disc set of more than 40 Bob Marley tracks recorded at Studio One-many of which are unreleased.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is true that if the relation of brain to mind were many-one, not one-one, there would be a one-sided dependence of mind on brain, while conversely, if the relation were one-many, as Bergson supposes, there would be a one-aided dependence of brain on mind.

From Project Gutenberg

It is not quite clear what is meant by "determining"; the only precise sense, so far as I know, is that of a function or one-many relation.

From Project Gutenberg