Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Being only one; individual; lone.
  • adjective Being the only one of a kind; unique.
  • adjective Being beyond what is ordinary, especially in being exceptionally good; remarkable.
  • adjective Strange or unusual.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or being a noun, pronoun, or adjective denoting a single person or thing or several entities considered as a single unit.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or being a verb expressing the action or state of a single subject.
  • adjective Logic Of or relating to the specific as distinguished from the general; individual.
  • noun The singular number or a form designating it.
  • noun A word having a singular number.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Being a unit, or one only; single.
  • Separate or apart from others; alone.
  • Pertaining to solitude, or separation from others; concerned with or involving solitude.
  • Pertaining to one person or thing; individual; also, pertaining to individual persons or things; in logic, not general; being only in one place at one time.
  • In grammar, denoting or relating to one person or thing: as, the singular number: opposed to dual and plural. Abbreviated singular
  • Having no duplicate or parallel; unmatched; unexampled; unique; being the only one of its kind.
  • Out of the usual course; unusual; uncommon; somewhat strange; a little extraordinary: as, a singular phenomenon.
  • Hence Of more than average value, worth, importance, or eminence; remarkable; fine; choice; precious; highly esteemed.
  • Not complying with common usage or expectation; hence, eccentric; peculiar; odd: as, he was very singular in his behavior.
  • In mathematics, exceptional.
  • Synonyms and Unwonted, exceptional, unparalleled.
  • Strange, Odd, etc. See eccentric.
  • noun That which is singular, in any sense of the word; that which is alone, separate, individual, unique, rare, or peculiar. See singular, a.
  • noun In grammar, the singular number.
  • noun In hunting, a company or pack: said of boars.
  • noun In logic, that which is not general, but has real reactions with other things.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Separate or apart from others; single; distinct.
  • adjective obsolete Engaged in by only one on a side; single.
  • adjective (Logic) Existing by itself; single; individual.
  • adjective (Law) Each; individual.
  • adjective (Gram.) Denoting one person or thing; ; -- opposed to dual and plural.
  • adjective Standing by itself; out of the ordinary course; unusual; uncommon; strange.
  • adjective Distinguished as existing in a very high degree; rarely equaled; eminent; extraordinary; exceptional.
  • adjective Departing from general usage or expectations; odd; whimsical; -- often implying disapproval or censure.
  • adjective Being alone; belonging to, or being, that of which there is but one; unique.
  • adjective (Math.) a point at which the curve possesses some peculiar properties not possessed by other points of the curve, as a cusp point, or a multiple point.
  • adjective (Logic) a proposition having as its subject a singular term, or a common term limited to an individual by means of a singular sign.
  • adjective (Civil Law) division among individual successors, as distinguished from universal succession, by which an estate descended in intestacy to the heirs in mass.
  • adjective (Logic) a term which represents or stands for a single individual.
  • noun obsolete An individual instance; a particular.
  • noun (Gram) The singular number, or the number denoting one person or thing; a word in the singular number.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Being only one of a larger population.
  • adjective Being the only one of the kind; unique.
  • adjective Distinguished by superiority, coming across as such.
  • adjective Being out of the ordinary, coming across as such.
  • adjective grammar Referring to only one thing or person.
  • adjective linear algebra, of matrix Having no inverse.
  • adjective linear algebra, of transformation Having the property that the matrix of coefficients of the new variables has a determinant equal to zero.
  • noun grammar A form of a word that refers to only one person or thing.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English singuler, from Old French, from Latin singulāris, from singulus, single; see single.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English singuler, from Old French, from Latin singularis ("alone of its kind"), from Latin singulus ("single").

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Examples

  • On such accounts, syntactically plural reference is semantically singular; there is a sense of ˜singular™ in which

    Jamestown 2009

  • The nominative _girl_ is here of the singular number, because it signifies but one person; and the verb _writes_ denotes but one action, which the girl performs; therefore the verb _writes_ is of the _singular_ number, agreeing with its nominative _girl_.

    English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham

  • Also by the term singular, I stick to only mathematical definition rather than its physical existence.

    iMechanica - Comments infinique 2009

  • AN amiable enthusiast, immortal in his beautiful little romance of Paul and Virginia, has given us in his Miscellanies a chapter on the Pleasures of Tombs, -- a title singular enough, yet not inappropriate; for the meek - spirited and sentimental author has given, in his own flowing and eloquent language, its vindication.

    The Inner Life, Part 3, from Volume VII, The Works of Whittier: the Conflict with Slavery, Politics and Reform, the Inner Life and Criticism John Greenleaf Whittier 1849

  • AN amiable enthusiast, immortal in his beautiful little romance of Paul and Virginia, has given us in his Miscellanies a chapter on the Pleasures of Tombs, -- a title singular enough, yet not inappropriate; for the meek - spirited and sentimental author has given, in his own flowing and eloquent language, its vindication.

    The Conflict with Slavery and Others, Complete, Volume VII, The Works of Whittier: the Conflict with Slavery, Politics and Reform, the Inner Life and Criticism John Greenleaf Whittier 1849

  • AN amiable enthusiast, immortal in his beautiful little romance of Paul and Virginia, has given us in his Miscellanies a chapter on the Pleasures of Tombs, -- a title singular enough, yet not inappropriate; for the meek - spirited and sentimental author has given, in his own flowing and eloquent language, its vindication.

    The Complete Works of Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1849

  • The "singular" is shipwrecked (George Oppen) as the world becomes "numerous," and the sonnet disdains its tradition as a monumental form by dissolving in its anticipated new beginnings.

    Passion and Romantic Poetics 1998

  • If anyone wants a real sickener, get it first-person singular from the horse's mouth:

    Lock her up Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • I do not believe in singular happenstance therefore if a situation like this occurred once, it has happened again.

    On Domestic Violence And Guns 2009

  • I do not believe in singular happenstance therefore if a situation like this occurred once, it has happened again.

    On Domestic Violence And Guns 2009

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