telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

, an ''n''-ary code is a

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

that has ''n'' significant conditions, where ''n'' is a positive integer greater than 1. The integer substituted for ''n'' indicates the specific number of significant conditions, ''i.e.'', quantization states, in the code. For example, an 8-ary code has eight significant conditions and can convey three bits per code symbol. A prefix that indicates an integer, ''e.g.'', "bin", "tern," or "quatern", may be used in lieu of a numeral, to produce " binary", "ternary", or "quaternary" (2, 3, and 4 states respectively).

See also