singular

[sing-gyuh-ler]

adjective

1. extraordinary; remarkable; exceptional.

   a singular success.

   Synonyms: peculiar
   Antonyms: usual

2. unusual or strange; odd; different.

   singular behavior.

   Synonyms: curious, queer, bizarre, peculiar

3. being the only one of its kind; distinctive; unique.

   a singular example.

   Synonyms: rare, uncommon, peculiar

4. separate; individual.

   Synonyms: single, peculiar

5. 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.

6. Logic.

   1. of or relating to something individual, specific, or not general.

   2. (of a proposition) containing no quantifiers, as “Socrates was mortal.”

7. Mathematics.

   1. of or relating to a linear transformation from a vector space to itself that is not one-to-one.

   2. of or relating to a matrix having a determinant equal to zero.

8. Obsolete.,  private.

9. Obsolete.,  single.

noun

Grammar.

1. the singular number.

2. a form in the singular.

singular

/ ˈsɪŋɡjʊlə /

adjective

1. remarkable; exceptional; extraordinary

   a singular feat

2. unusual; odd

   a singular character

3. unique

4. denoting a word or an inflected form of a word indicating that not more than one referent is being referred to or described

5. logic of or referring to a specific thing or person as opposed to something general

noun

1. grammar

   1. the singular number

   2. a singular form of a word

singular

1. In nouns, pronouns, and verbs, the grammatical form that refers to only one thing. In the following sentence, the singular words are italicized: “The police officer stops anyone who crosses before the light changes.” (Compare plural; see agreement.)

Other Word Forms

• singularness noun
• singularly adverb
• supersingular adjective
• unsingular adjective
• unsingularly adverb
• unsingularness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of singular¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English word from Latin word singulāris. See single, -ar ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of singular¹

C14: from Latin singulāris _single

Example Sentences

What Lululemon is missing, he suggested, is someone like himself: “A company bereft of a visionary loses its singular voice for product and long-term strategy.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

This autumn, the Dodgers clinched the division series on a night of a singular, stunning meltdown.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In a post on X, the agency said: "The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission."

Read more on BBC

Ms. Greene is, in every sense, a singular politician, mercifully neither imitated nor imitable.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She also doesn’t prescribe her family’s approach as a singular ideal, acknowledging that seasons look different for everyone.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• bizarre 
• exceptional 
• extraordinary 
• peculiar 
• rare 
• remarkable 
• strange 
• uncommon 
• unimaginable 
• unparalleled 
• unprecedented 
• unusual