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.
- 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.
- 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 andplural . - 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.
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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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On such accounts, syntactically plural reference is semantically singular; there is a sense of ˜singular™ in which
Jamestown 2009
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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
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Also by the term singular, I stick to only mathematical definition rather than its physical existence.
iMechanica - Comments infinique 2009
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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If anyone wants a real sickener, get it first-person singular from the horse's mouth:
Lock her up Norfolk Blogger 2009
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I do not believe in singular happenstance therefore if a situation like this occurred once, it has happened again.
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I do not believe in singular happenstance therefore if a situation like this occurred once, it has happened again.
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