unidirectional

See also: unidirecțional and uni-directional

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ís?

Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos

Proto-Italic *oinos

Old Latin oinos

Latin ūnus

Latin ūni-der.

English uni-

English direction

English -al

English directional

English unidirectional

From uni- + directional.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌjuː.nɪ.dɪˈɹɛk.ʃə.nəl, -daɪ-, -ˈɹɛkʃ.nəl/; [ˌjuː.nɨ.dɨˈɹɛk.ʃə.nl̩, -daɪ-, -ˈɹɛkʃ.nl̩]
• (General American) enPR: yo͞o'nĭ-dĭ-rĕkʹshə-nəl, -dī-; IPA^(key): /ˌjuː.nɪ.dɪˈɹɛk.ʃə.nəl, -daɪ-/; [ˌjuː.nɪ̈.dɪ̈ˈɹɛk.ʃə.nl̩, -daɪ-]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkʃənəl, -ɛkʃnəl
• Hyphenation: uni‧di‧rec‧tion‧al

Adjective

unidirectional (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to only one direction, e.g.: where all component parts are aligned in the same direction in space.

   Synonym: (computing, telecommunications) simplex

   • 1941 November, O. S. Nock, “The Locomotives of Sir Nigel Gresley: Part VI—Experiments and Rebuilds 1927-33”, in Railway Magazine, page 483:

     [...] a reversible booster was fitted to the trailing bogie; all previous applications on the L.N.E.R. for use in main line traffic had been of unidirectional boosters, […]

   • 2005, Richard Samson, edited by Martha Tennent, Training for the New Millennium: Pedagogies for translation and interpreting, Benjamins Translation Library, page 119:

     Equally important is the class mailing list, which facilitates two-way communication at a distance. (By contrast, the web page is basically a unidirectional teacher-to-student communication.)

2. Not subject to change or reversal of direction.

Coordinate terms

• bidirectional

Derived terms

• nonunidirectional
• unidirectionality
• unidirectionally

Translations

pertaining to only one direction

• Bulgarian: еднопосочен (ednoposočen)
• Catalan: unidireccional
• Dutch: unidirectioneel, eenrichtings-
• Finnish: yksisuuntainen (fi), tasasuuntainen
• French: unidirectionnel (fr)
• German: unidirektional
• Greek: ομοιοκατευθυνόμενος m (omoiokatefthynómenos)
• Hindi: एकदिश (ekdiś), एकदिशीय (ekdiśīya)
• Hungarian: egyirányú (hu)
• Irish: aontreoch
• Polish: jednokierunkowy (pl)
• Russian: однонапра́вленный (ru) (odnonaprávlennyj)
• Swedish: enkelriktad (sv)
• Ukrainian: односпрямо́ваний (odnosprjamóvanyj)

See also

• omnidirectional

Noun

unidirectional (plural unidirectionals)

1. A fabric in which the majority of fibers run in the same single direction.