prime implicant

{{electrical engineering}} A group of related 1's (implicant) on a Karnaugh map which is not subsumed by any other implicant in the same map. ''Equivalently (in terms of Boolean algebra),'' a product term which is a "minimal" implicant in the sense that removing any of its literals will yield a product term which is not an implicant (but beware: on a Karnaugh map it would appear "maximal").