singular
[sing-gyuh-ler]
- extraordinary; remarkable; exceptional: a singular success.
- unusual or strange; odd; different: singular behavior.
- being the only one of its kind; distinctive; unique: a singular example.
- separate; individual.
- Grammar. noting or pertaining to a member of the category of number found in many languages that indicates that a word form has one referent or denotes one person, place, thing, or instance, as English boy and thing, which are singular nouns, or goes, a singular form of the verb go.Compare dual(def 4), plural(def 4).
- Logic.
- of or relating to something individual, specific, or not general.
- (of a proposition) containing no quantifiers, as “Socrates was mortal.”
- Mathematics.
- of or relating to a linear transformation from a vector space to itself that is not one-to-one.
- of or relating to a matrix having a determinant equal to zero.
- Obsolete. private.
- Obsolete. single.
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- the singular number.
- a form in the singular.
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Origin of singular
Synonyms
See more synonyms for singular on Thesaurus.com1–4. peculiar. 2. bizarre, queer, curious. 3. uncommon, rare. 4. single.
Antonyms
1. usual.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for singular
Contemporary Examples
From this attitude he draws a singular comic and literary power.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim PresidentPierre Assouline
January 9, 2015
Her single and singular goal in every case is to pursue justice as determined by the law.
The singular author Don Carpenter took his own life in 1995.
The entire city can seem like a singular monument to his decades in office.
Eastwood is a singular screen presence, and he can be electrifying in the right role.
‘Jersey Boys’ Proves Clint Eastwood is Hollywood’s Most Overrated DirectorAndrew Romano
June 20, 2014
Historical Examples
It is a record of singular variety and singular distinction.
He had a singular feeling that someone had been looking at him while he slept.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
As a matter of fact, we do find a singular satisfaction in the troubles of others.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
In grammar it is a pronoun of the first person and singular number.
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce
The address was written in a singular hand; in large, print-looking letters.
The ChanningsMrs. Henry Wood
singular
- remarkable; exceptional; extraordinarya singular feat
- unusual; odda singular character
- unique
- denoting a word or an inflected form of a word indicating that not more than one referent is being referred to or described
- logic of or referring to a specific thing or person as opposed to something general
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- grammar
- the singular number
- a singular form of a word
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin singulāris single
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for singular
adj.
mid-14c., "alone, apart; being a unit; special, unsurpassed," from Old French singuler "personal particular; distinctive; singular in number" (12c., Modern French singulier) or directly from Latin singularis "single, solitary, one by one, one at a time; peculiar, remarkable," from singulus (see single (adj.)). Meaning "remarkably good, unusual, rare, separated from others (by excellence), uncommon" is from c.1400 in English; this also was a common meaning of Latin singularis.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
singular
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.