nonassociative

/ˌnɑnəˈsoʊʃiətɪv/
adjective
  1. Not involving or characterized by association; in mathematics, referring to an operation where the grouping of elements affects the result (e.g., subtraction is nonassociative).
    • The teacher explained that division is nonassociative, so you must use parentheses carefully.
    • Subtraction is a nonassociative operation because (5 - 3) - 2 does not equal 5 - (3 - 2).
    • In algebra class, they learned about nonassociative structures like octonions.
Antonyms
What does "nonassociative" mean? | whatsthatwordmean | whatsthatwordmean