In mathematics, the split-octonions are an 8-dimensional nonassociative algebra over the real numbers. Unlike the standard octonions, they contain non-zero elements which are non-invertible. Also the signatures of their quadratic forms differ: the split-octonions have a split signature (4,4) whereas the octonions have a positive-definite signature (8,0).

Up to isomorphism, the octonions and the split-octonions are the only two 8-dimensional composition algebras over the real numbers. They are also the only two octonion algebras over the real numbers. Split-octonion algebras analogous to the split-octonions can be defined over any field.

The octonions and the split-octonions can be obtained from the Cayley–Dickson construction by defining a multiplication on pairs of quaternions. We introduce a new imaginary unit ℓ and write a pair of quaternions (a, b) in the form a + bℓ. The product is defined by the rule:

where

If λ is chosen to be −1, we get the octonions. If, instead, it is taken to be +1 we get the split-octonions. One can also obtain the split-octonions via a Cayley–Dickson doubling of the split-quaternions. Here either choice of λ (±1) gives the split-octonions.

A basis for the split-octonions is given by the set ${\displaystyle \{\ 1,\ i,\ j,\ k,\ \ell ,\ \ell i,\ \ell j,\ \ell k\ \}}$.

Every split-octonion ${\displaystyle x}$ can be written as a linear combination of the basis elements,

with real coefficients ${\displaystyle x_{a}}$.