scalar

from 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

from 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]

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

scalar

   1. <mathematics> 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. <architecture> 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. <programming> 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)