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An algebra for a monad for the list monad is precisely a monoid. For an action $a$, the identity is $a([])$ and multiplication is $a([x,y])$. The algebra laws force the unit and associativity laws and determine $a$ as ordered multiplication. Conversely ordered multiplication defines a list action. Algebra morphisms are exactly monoid homomorphisms, giving an isomorphism of categories ${\mathbf{Set}}^{\mathrm{List}}\cong \mathbf{Mon}$.

A monad consists of an endofunctor $T:\mathcal{C}\to \mathcal{C}$ and natural transformations $\eta :1\Rightarrow T$ and $\mu :T^2\Rightarrow T$, the unit and multiplication of a monad, satisfyingAn algebra for a monad is $(A,a)$ with $a:TA\to A$ satisfying $a{\eta }_A=1_A$ and $a{\mu }_A=aTa$. A morphism of algebras for a monad $h:(A,a)\to (B,b)$ satisfies $ha=bTh$. These objects and morphisms form the Eilenberg-Moore category ${\mathcal{C}}^T$; its composition works because $T$ is a functor.

For the list monad, $TX={\coprod }_{n\ge 0}{X}^n$ is the set of finite ordered lists, including the empty list. The map $Tf$ applies $f$ to each entry; ${\eta }_X(x)=[x]$ and ${\mu }_X$ concatenates a list of lists. The unit laws say that adding singleton brackets and then flattening changes nothing. Associativity says that flattening a list of lists of lists in either order produces the same ordered sequence. These descriptions also prove naturality.

If $a:TX\to X$ is an algebra for a monad, defineThe singleton law gives $a([x])=x$. Apply the algebra associativity law to $[[],[x]]$ and $[[x],[]]$ to obtain $e\ast x=x=x\ast e$. Applying it to $[[x,y],[z]]$ and $[[x],[y,z]]$ showsThus $(X,\ast ,e)$ is a monoid. Applying the same law to $[[x_1,\dots ,x_{n-1}],[x_n]]$ shows inductively that $a$ is necessarily ordered multiplication of its entries, with the empty product $e$.

Conversely, any monoid defines such a list-fold map $a$. The monoid unit proves $a\eta =1$, and associativity and the unit prove that multiplying flattened lists equals multiplying their individual products, including empty sublists. Hence $a\mu =aTa$. An algebra morphism preserves the empty-list value and two-entry-list values, so it is a monoid homomorphism; conversely a monoid homomorphism preserves every ordered product and is an algebra morphism. ThereforeThus list-monad algebras are monoids, with the identification also matching every morphism.