Coset
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The set that results from applying a group's binary operation with a given fixed element of the group on each element of a given subgroup.
"1970 [Addison Wesley], Frederick W. Byron, Robert W. Fuller, Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics, Volumes 1-2, Dover, 1992, page 597, Theorem 10.5. The collection consisting of an invariant subgroup H and all its distinct cosets is itself a group, called the factor group of G, usually denoted by G/H. (Remember that the left and right cosets of an invariant subgroup are identical.) Multiplication of two cosets aH and bH is defined as the set of all distinct products z = xy, with x ∈ aH and y ∈ bH; the identity element of the factor group is the subgroup H itself."
Example
More examples"1970 [Addison Wesley], Frederick W. Byron, Robert W. Fuller, Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics, Volumes 1-2, Dover, 1992, page 597, Theorem 10.5. The collection consisting of an invariant subgroup H and all its distinct cosets is itself a group, called the factor group of G, usually denoted by G/H. (Remember that the left and right cosets of an invariant subgroup are identical.) Multiplication of two cosets aH and bH is defined as the set of all distinct products z = xy, with x ∈ aH and y ∈ bH; the identity element of the factor group is the subgroup H itself."
Etymology
From co- + set; apparently first used 1910 by American mathematician George Abram Miller.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.