Oneway

Oneway, also written as one-way or Oneway, is a term used to describe something that permits action or movement in only a single direction. It is most commonly associated with transportation, where a one-way street or traffic flow restricts vehicles to move in a specified direction. One-way systems are used to improve safety and traffic efficiency by reducing conflicts at intersections and enabling tighter street layouts. Clear signage and directional arrows indicate the permitted direction for motorists and cyclists.

In other contexts, one-way appears in mathematics and computer science. A one-way function is easy to compute in the forward direction but difficult to invert, a property central to many cryptographic protocols. Related concepts include one-way hash functions, which compress inputs into fixed-length outputs with low likelihood of reconstructing the original input.

In statistics, a one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) tests whether the means of several groups are equal when the groups are defined by a single factor. It is a staple method in experimental design and data analysis.

The term also surfaces in branding, media, and product names, with variations in capitalization and punctuation (oneway, OneWay, or One Way). Because of its generic meaning, the exact interpretation of "oneway" depends on the context.