from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
parity bit
n 1: (computer science) a bit that is used in an error detection
procedure in which a 0 or 1 is added to each group of bits
so that it will have either an odd number of 1's or an even
number of 1's; e.g., if the parity is odd then any group of
bits that arrives with an even number of 1's must contain
an error [syn: {parity bit}, {parity}, {check bit}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
parity bit \par"i*ty bit`\, n. (Computers)
The bit within a data structure which is assigned a value of
1 or 0 so as to make the parity[7] of the data structure odd
or even. Data structures may or may not have parity bits,
dpending on whether the system does or does not perform
{parity checking}. The most commonly used parity bit is the
eigth (higher-order) bit of a byte, which is used when data
transmission uses only the 7 lower-order bits of each byte as
significant data; some memory systems use a ninth bit as a
parity bit for each eight bits (one byte) of significant data
in memory.
[PJC]