polarity : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: polarity	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for polarity
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
polarity n a relation between two opposite attributes or tendencies; "he viewed it as a balanced polarity between good and evil" Synonym(s): mutual opposition, polarity having an indicated pole (as the distinction between positive and negative electric charges); "he got the polarity of the battery reversed"; "charges of opposite sign" Synonym(s): polarity, sign
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Polarity \Polar"ity\, n. [Cf. F. polarit[82].] 1. (Physics) That quality or condition of a body in virtue of which it exhibits opposite, or contrasted, properties or powers, in opposite, or contrasted, parts or directions; or a condition giving rise to a contrast of properties corresponding to a contrast of positions, as, for example, attraction and repulsion in the opposite parts of a magnet, the dissimilar phenomena corresponding to the different sides of a polarized ray of light, etc. 2. (Geom.) A property of the conic sections by virtue of which a given point determines a corresponding right line and a given right line determines a corresponding point. See {Polar}, n.