different between unit vs force

English

Etymology

Formerly unite, a later form of unity; see unity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ju?.n?t/
• Rhymes: -u?n?t

Noun

unit (plural units)

1. (mathematics) Oneness, singularity, seen as a component of a whole number; a magnitude of one. [from 16th c.]
   • 1570, John Dee, in H. Billingsley (trans.) Euclid, Elements of Geometry, Preface:

     Number, we define, to be, a certayne Mathematicall S?me, of Vnits. [Note the worde, Vnit, to expresse the Greke Monas, & not Vnitie: as we haue all, commonly, till now, vsed.]

2. (sciences) A standard measure of a quantity.

3. The number one.
4. Clipping of international unit.

5. An organized group comprising people and/or equipment.

6. (military, informal) A member of a military organization.

7. (US, military) Any military element whose structure is prescribed by competent authority, such as a table of organization and equipment; specifically, part of an organization.
8. (US, military) An organization title of a subdivision of a group in a task force.
9. (US, military) A standard or basic quantity into which an item of supply is divided, issued, or detailed. In this meaning, also called unit of issue.
10. (US, military) With regard to Reserve Components of the Armed Forces, denotes a Selected Reserve unit organized, equipped, and trained for mobilization to serve on active duty as a unit or to augment or be augmented by another unit. Headquarters and support functions without wartime missions are not considered units.
11. (algebra) The identity element, neutral element.
12. (algebra) An element having an inverse, an invertible element; an associate of the unity.

    Hypernym: regular element

13. (category theory) In an adjunction, a natural transformation from the identity functor of the domain of the left adjoint functor to the composition of the right adjoint functor with the left adjoint functor.
14. (geology) A volume of rock or ice of identifiable origin and age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features (facies) that characterize it.
15. (commerce) An item which may be sold singly.

16. (Britain) A unit of alcohol.
17. (Britain, electricity) One kilowatt-hour (as recorded on an electricity meter).
18. (US, Australia, New Zealand) a measure of housing equivalent to the living quarters of one household; an apartment where a group of apartments is contained in one or more multi-storied buildings or a group of dwellings is in one or more single storey buildings, usually arranged around a driveway.
19. (historical) A gold coin of the reign of James I, worth twenty shillings.
20. A work unit.
21. (Britain, Australia, slang) A physically large person.
    • 2018, 11 December, BBC News, Aylesbury goalkeeper, 14, dies after match injury

      Luca's father, Americo Campanaro, said: "I feel like my heart has been ripped out."
      Mr Campanaro added: "He was a big lad, a big unit, that's why he was a goalkeeper, with a big heart to match. A gentle giant."

Synonyms

• (identity element): identity element, unity, unit element

Hyponyms

• (chip): arithmetic logic unit

Translations

Adjective

unit (not comparable)

1. For each unit.

   We have to keep our unit costs down if we want to make a profit.

2. (mathematics) Having a size or magnitude of one.
   • 1990, William W. S. Wei, Time Series Analysis, ?ISBN, page 9:

     Consider the following time sequence

     ${\displaystyle Z_{t}=A\sin(\omega t+\theta )}$,

     where ${\displaystyle A}$ is a random variable with a zero mean and a unit variance and ${\displaystyle \theta }$ is a random variable with a uniform distribution on the interval ${\displaystyle [-\pi ,\pi ]}$ independent of ${\displaystyle A}$.

Translations

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• unit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• unit in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• unit at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• uint

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /u?nit/
• Rhymes: -it

Adjective

unit (feminine unida, masculine plural units, feminine plural unides)

1. united

Derived terms

• Emirats Àrabs Units
• Estats Units
• Estats Units d'Amèrica
• Regne Unit

Verb

unit m (feminine unida, masculine plural units, feminine plural unides)

1. past participle of unir

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /y.ni/

Verb

unit

1. third-person singular present indicative of unir
2. third-person singular past historic of unir

Anagrams

• nuit

Indonesian

Etymology

From English unit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??n?t?]
• Hyphenation: unit

Noun

unit (first-person possessive unitku, second-person possessive unitmu, third-person possessive unitnya)

1. unit:
   1. (mathematics) oneness, singularity, seen as a component of a whole number; a magnitude of one.

      Synonym: satuan

   2. (sciences) a standard measure of a quantity.

Classifier

unit

1. Classifier for singularity.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “unit” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Latin

Verb

?nit

1. third-person singular present active indicative of ?ni?

Occitan

Pronunciation

Verb

unit

1. past participle of unir

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [u?nit]

Participle

unit

1. past participle of uni

Declension

Welsh

Alternative forms

• unet (colloquial)
• unset (colloquial)

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /???n?t/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /?i?n?t/, /??n?t/

Verb

unit

1. (literary) second-person singular imperfect/conditional of uno

Mutation

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: fôrs, IPA^(key): /f??s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??s/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: f?rs, IPA^(key): /fo(?)?s/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /fo?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Etymology 1

From Middle English force, fors, forse, from Old French force, from Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *fortia, from neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”).

Noun

force (countable and uncountable, plural forces)

1. Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
2. Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, part II

     which now they hold by force, and not by right

3. (countable) Anything that is able to make a substantial change in a person or thing.
4. (countable, physics) A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body and which has a direction and is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn)
5. Something or anything that has the power to produce a physical effect upon something else, such as causing it to move or change shape.
6. (countable) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
   • 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

     Is Lucius general of the forces?

   • "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. […]."
8. (uncountable) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.

9. (countable) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
10. (law) Legal validity.

11. (law) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry", or lawful compulsion.
12. (linguistics, semantics, pragmatics) Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.
13. (humorous or science fiction, with the, often capitalized) A metaphysical and ubiquitous power from the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. See usage note. [1977]
14. Synonym of police force (“typically with preceding "the"”)

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "force": military, cultural, economic, gravitational, electric, magnetic, strong, weak, positive, negative, attractive, repulsive, good, evil, dark, physical, muscular, spiritual, intellectual, mental, emotional, rotational, tremendous, huge.
• (science fiction): Outside of fiction, the force may be used as an alternative to invoking luck, destiny, or God. For example, the force was with him instead of luck was on his side, or may the force be with you instead of may God be with you.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• may the Force be with you
• workforce

Related terms

Translations

References

• force on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English forcen, from Old French forcer, from Late Latin *forti?re, from Latin fortia.

Verb

force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)

1. (transitive) To violate (a woman); to rape. [from 14^thc.]
2. (obsolete, reflexive, intransitive) To exert oneself, to do one's utmost. [from 14^thc.]

   • And I pray you for my sake to force yourselff there, that men may speke you worshyp.

3. (transitive) To compel (someone or something) to do something. [from 15^thc.]

   • Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

   • 2011, Tim Webb & Fiona Harvey, The Guardian, 23 March:

     Housebuilders had warned that the higher costs involved would have forced them to build fewer homes and priced many homebuyers out of the market.

4. (transitive) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of. [from 16^thc.]
5. (transitive) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb). [from 16^thc.]

   • It stuck so fast, so deeply buried lay / That scarce the victor forced the steel away.

   • Ethelbert […] ordered that none should be forced into religion.

   • 2007, The Guardian, 4 November:

     In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road.

6. (transitive) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force. [from 16^thc.]
   • 2009, "All things to Althingi", The Economist, 23 July:

     The second problem is the economy, the shocking state of which has forced the decision to apply to the EU.

7. (transitive) To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.). [from 17^thc.]

8. To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
9. (transitive, baseball) To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.

10. (whist) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
11. (archaic) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
    • c. 1613, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

      What can the church force more?

12. (archaic) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
13. (obsolete) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Imperial unit: foot pound
• metric unit: newton
• coerce: To control by force.

Etymology 3

From Middle English force, forz, fors, from Old Norse fors (“waterfall”), from Proto-Germanic *fursaz (“waterfall”). Cognate with Icelandic foss (“waterfall”), Norwegian foss (“waterfall”), Swedish fors (“waterfall”). Doublet of foss.

Noun

force (plural forces)

1. (countable, Northern England) A waterfall or cascade.
   • 1778, Thomas West, A Guide to the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire

     to see the falls or force of the river Kent

Derived terms

• forcefall

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English forcen, forsen, a use of force, with confusion of farce (“to stuff”).

Verb

force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)

1. To stuff; to lard; to farce.

Derived terms

• forcemeat

Further reading

• force at OneLook Dictionary Search
• force in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• force in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Cofer, Corfe, corfe

French

Etymology

From Middle French force, from Old French force, from Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *fortia, re-analyzed as a feminine singular from the neuter plural of Latin fortis. Compare Catalan força, Portuguese força, Italian forza, Spanish fuerza.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??s/
• Rhymes: -??s
• Homophones: forcent, forces

Noun

force f (plural forces)

1. force
2. strength

Synonyms

• pouvoir
• puissance
• violence

Derived terms

Adjective

force (invariable)

1. (archaic) Many; a lot of; a great quantity of.

Verb

force

1. first/third-person singular present indicative of forcer
2. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of forcer
3. second-person singular imperative of forcer

Further reading

• “force” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French force.

Noun

force f (plural forces)

1. force (physical effort; physical might)

Descendants

• French: force

Old French

Alternative forms

• forche (Picardy, Old Northern French)
• fors

Etymology

From Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *fortia, re-analyzed as a feminine singular from the neuter plural of Latin fortis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?r.t?s?/

Noun

force f (oblique plural forces, nominative singular force, nominative plural forces)

1. strength; might

Related terms

• esforcer
• esfort
• fort
• forteresce

Descendants

• Middle French: force
  • French: force
• Walloon: foice
• ? Middle English: force / fors / forse
  • English: force

Portuguese

Verb

force

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of forçar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of forçar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of forçar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of forçar