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A partially ordered set (poset for short) is an ordered pair = (,) consisting of a set (called the ground set of ) and a partial order on . When the meaning is clear from context and there is no ambiguity about the partial order, the set X {\displaystyle X} itself is sometimes called a poset.
If the preordered set (,) also happens to be a partially ordered set (or more generally, if the restriction (,) is a partially ordered set) then is a maximal element of if and only if contains no element strictly greater than ; explicitly, this means that there does not exist any element such that and .
Lattices, partial orders in which each pair of elements has a greatest lower bound and a least upper bound. Many different types of lattice have been studied; see map of lattices for a list. Partially ordered sets (or posets ), orderings in which some pairs are comparable and others might not be
Join and meet are dual to one another with respect to order inversion. A partially ordered set in which all pairs have a join is a join-semilattice. Dually, a partially ordered set in which all pairs have a meet is a meet-semilattice. A partially ordered set that is both a join-semilattice and a meet-semilattice is a lattice.
A given partially ordered set may have several different completions. For instance, one completion of any partially ordered set S is the set of its downwardly closed subsets ordered by inclusion. S is embedded in this (complete) lattice by mapping each element x to the lower set of elements that are less than or equal to x.
A set equipped with a total order is a totally ordered set; [5] the terms simply ordered set, [2] linearly ordered set, [3] [5] and loset [6] [7] are also used. The term chain is sometimes defined as a synonym of totally ordered set , [ 5 ] but generally refers to a totally ordered subset of a given partially ordered set.
In mathematical order theory, an ideal is a special subset of a partially ordered set (poset). Although this term historically was derived from the notion of a ring ideal of abstract algebra, it has subsequently been generalized to a different notion. Ideals are of great importance for many constructions in order and lattice theory.
Consequently, partially ordered sets for which certain infima are known to exist become especially interesting. For instance, a lattice is a partially ordered set in which all nonempty finite subsets have both a supremum and an infimum, and a complete lattice is a partially ordered set in which all subsets