In functional analysis, an operator A : X → X ∗ {displaystyle A:X o X^{*}} where X is a real Hilbert space is said to be strongly monotone if In functional analysis, an operator A : X → X ∗ {displaystyle A:X o X^{*}} where X is a real Hilbert space is said to be strongly monotone if This is analogous to the notion of strictly increasing for scalar-valued functions of one scalar argument. For more information, see coercivity