asymmetry

From a- +‎ symmetry.

• IPA^(key): /eɪˈsɪmɪtɹi/

asymmetry (countable and uncountable, plural asymmetries)

1. Absence of symmetry or proportion between the parts of a thing, or a distinction that produces such a lack of symmetry.
   • 1993, Joseph B. Hellige, Hemispheric Asymmetry: What's Right and What's Left, →ISBN, page 114:

     Despite the generally symmetrical appearance of the two hemispheres, however, a number of biological asymmetries have been documented during the last hundred years.

   • 1994, Roger Ferlet & ‎Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Circumstellar Dust Disks and Planet Formation, →ISBN:

     If the planet is on moderate eccentric orbit (0.01), it creates large-scale azimuthal assymetries which evolve at the orbital velocity of the corresponding resonance, for example at half time the planet velocity for the stronger resonance, the 2:1 one.

   • 1997, American Bar Foundation, ABF Working Paper - Issue 9304; Issue 9426, page 75:

     In this sense, the concern of political economy with assymetries of information among political actors is well-placed.

   • 2014, Amal Amireh & ‎Lisa Suhair Majaj, Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers, →ISBN:

     Transnational feminists argue that feminists need to understand the material conditions that shape women's lives in diverse locations, particularly in a world "structured by transnational economic links and cultural assymetries" (Grewal and Kaplan, 3).

2. The lack of a common measure between two objects or quantities; incommensurability.