Word.ws English Dictionary

Whitney's theorem

Whitney's theorem proper noun: a theorem stating that two connected graphs are isomorphic if and only if their line graphs are isomorphic, with a single exception: K₃, the complete graph on three vertices, and the complete bipartite graph K_(1,3), which are not isomorphic but both have K₃ as their line graph.

Proper noun

Whitney's theorem

  1. A theorem stating that two connected graphs are isomorphic if and only if their line graphs are isomorphic, with a single exception: K₃, the complete graph on three vertices, and the complete bipartite graph K_(1,3), which are not isomorphic but both have K₃ as their line graph.
    • Whitney's theorem can be extended to hypergraphs.

Origin of Whitney's theorem

Introduced by Hassler Whitney (1907–1989), American mathematician.

Questions about Whitney's theorem

What does Whitney's theorem mean?
Whitney's theorem means a theorem stating that two connected graphs are isomorphic if and only if their line graphs are isomorphic, with a single exception: K₃, the complete graph on three vertices, and the complete bipartite graph K_(1,3), which are not isomorphic but both have K₃ as their line graph.
What part of speech is Whitney's theorem?
Whitney's theorem is a proper noun.

Words near Whitney's theorem in the dictionary

  1. whitneck
  2. whitnecks
  3. Whitner
  4. Whitners
  5. Whitney
  6. Whitney's theorem
  7. Whitney-on-Wye
  8. Whitneyan
  9. whitneyite
  10. Whitneyville
  11. Whitoid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Whitney's theorem (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Whitney's theorem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whitney%27s_theorem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.