Noun
matroid (plural matroids)
(combinatorics) A structure that captures the essence of a notion of "independence" that generalizes linear independence in vector spaces and acyclicality in graphs.
A matroid can be defined in terms of bases. A matroid consists of a ground set as well as a set of bases which is a nonempty subset of the power set of the ground set.
Not only the structure but also enumerative properties belong to matroid theory. Source: Internet
In addition, Tutte developed an algorithm for determining whether a given binary matroid is graphic. Source: Internet
Generalizations Generalizing the definition of the span of points in space, a subset X of the ground set of a matroid is called a spanning set if the rank of X equals the rank of the entire ground set. Source: Internet