Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
a variable quantity that cannot be resolved into components;
ADJECTIVE (2)
1.
of or relating to a musical scale;
- Example: "he played some basic scalar patterns on his guitar"2.
of or relating to a directionless magnitude (such as mass or speed etc.) that is completely specified by its magnitude;
- Example: "scalar quantity"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Scalar \Sca"lar\, n. (Math.)
In the quaternion analysis, a quantity that has magnitude,
but not direction; -- distinguished from a vector, which has
both magnitude and direction.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
scalar
adj 1: of or relating to a musical scale; "he played some basic
scalar patterns on his guitar"
2: of or relating to a directionless magnitude (such as mass or
speed etc.) that is completely specified by its magnitude;
"scalar quantity"
n 1: a variable quantity that cannot be resolved into components
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
scalar
1. A single number, as opposed to a vector or
matrix of numbers. Thus, for example, "scalar
multiplication" refers to the operation of multiplying one
number (one scalar) by another and is used to contrast this
with "matrix multiplication" etc.
2. In a parallel processor or vector
processor, the "scalar processor" handles all the sequential
operations - those which cannot be parallelised or vectorised.
See also superscalar.
3. Any data type that stores a single value
(e.g. a number or Boolean), as opposed to an aggregate
data type that has many elements. A string is regarded as a
scalar in some languages (e.g. Perl) and a vector of
characters in others (e.g. C).
(2002-06-12)