disjunta

Disjunta is a term used in Spanish and Portuguese to describe objects that do not overlap or that are mutually exclusive. It is most common in mathematics, set theory, probability, and logic, where it characterizes non-overlapping or independent elements.

In set theory, two sets A and B are disjoint if their intersection is empty: A ∩ B = ∅. When sets are disjoint, the cardinality of their union satisfies |A ∪ B| = |A| + |B|, reflecting that no element is counted twice. The concept extends to families of sets: a collection is pairwise disjoint if every pair of distinct sets within it is disjoint.

In probability and statistics, events A and B are disjoint if they cannot occur simultaneously, meaning P(A ∩ B) = 0. Disjoint events can form partitions of a sample space, where the union of the disjoint events covers the whole space, and the events are mutually exclusive.

In logic and linguistics, disjunta describes propositions or predicates that are mutually exclusive or non-overlapping in truth conditions. Disjunction, or logical OR, is a related concept expressed by the symbol ∨, but disjunta emphasizes the mutual exclusivity of the combined options in certain languages and contexts.

Etymology traces the word to Latin disjunctus, from dis- “apart” and jungere “to join.” The term appears in mathematical literature in its feminine form disjunta to agree with feminine nouns such as conjunto or regla.

See also: disjoint sets, mutual exclusivity, partition, disjunction.