Commutative monoid

Group-like structures
	Totality	Associativity	Identity	Invertibility	Commutativity
Semicategory	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Category	Unneeded	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Groupoid	Unneeded	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded
Magma	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Quasigroup	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded
Loop	Required	Unneeded	Required	Required	Unneeded
Semigroup	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Monoid	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded
Abelian group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required
^α Closure, which is used in many sources, is an equivalent axiom to totality, though defined differently.

In abstract algebra, a branch of mathematics, a monoid is an algebraic structure with a single associative binary operation and an identity element. Monoids are studied in semigroup theory, because they are semigroups with identity. Monoids occur in several branches of mathematics; for instance, they can be regarded as categories with a single object. Thus, they capture the idea of function composition within a set. In fact, all functions from a set into itself form naturally a monoid with respect to function composition. Monoids are also commonly used in computer science, both in its foundational aspects and in practical programming. The set of strings built from a given set of characters is a free monoid. The transition monoid and syntactic monoid are used in describing finite state machines, whereas trace monoids and history monoids provide a foundation for process calculi and concurrent computing. Some of the more important results in the study of monoids are the Krohn–Rhodes theorem and the star height problem. The history of monoids, as well as a discussion of additional general properties, are found in the article on semigroups.