singular

[sing-gyuh-ler]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR singular ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

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.

noun Grammar.

the singular number.

a form in the singular.

Origin of singular

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English word from Latin word singulāris. See single, -ar¹

Related formssin·gu·lar·ly, adverbsin·gu·lar·ness, nounsu·per·sin·gu·lar, adjectiveun·sin·gu·lar, adjectiveun·sin·gu·lar·ly, adverbun·sin·gu·lar·ness, noun

Can be confusedsingle singular

Synonyms for singular

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR singular ON THESAURUS.COM

1–4. peculiar. 2. bizarre, queer, curious. 3. uncommon, rare. 4. single.

Antonyms for singular

1. usual.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for singularly

Contemporary Examples of singularly

Today that singularly revered profession is actually many jobs rolled into one.
Renaissance Man Jared Leto Defies Categorization
The Daily Beast
December 8, 2014
The first photos from the far side of the Moon are singularly unimpressive to modern eyes.
The USSR’s Race to the Moon’s Far Side
Matthew R. Francis
October 12, 2014
This was set aside for the moment, now that a man with a knife had committed something so singularly horrific.
This Brooklyn 6-Year-Old’s Murderer Is Still on the Loose
Michael Daly
June 3, 2014
New York Times Book critic Eliot Fremont-Smith agreed in his review, calling Barbie, “singularly offensive.”
Happy Bday Barbie! You're Over
Brandy Zadrozny
March 9, 2014
Professional sports has a singularly unheroic and uninspiring precedent for treating those with a medical problem.
Can NASCAR Driver Trevor Bayne Race Safely With Multiple Sclerosis?
Kent Sepkowitz
November 13, 2013

Historical Examples of singularly

But one remark was at once singularly philosophical and practical.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various
At last Dixon had been singularly fortunate in the matter of jockeys.
Thoroughbreds
W. A. Fraser
The other eye, as if to make up, was singularly, repellently intelligent.
It Happened in Egypt
C. N. Williamson
To this young nobleman Lord Vargrave was singularly attentive.
Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
At last, Csar hit on a compromise which seemed to him a singularly happy one.
Hetty's Strange History
Anonymous

British Dictionary definitions for singularly

singular

adjective

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

noun

grammar

the singular number
a singular form of a word

Derived Formssingularly, adverbsingularness, noun

Word Origin for singular

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 singularly

adv.

late 14c., "exclusively, alone, solely; uniquely; individually; in an unusual way, especially," from singular + -ly (2).

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.

Culture definitions for singularly

singular

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.)

singular

adjective

noun Grammar.

RELATED WORDS

Origin of singular

Synonyms for singular

Antonyms for singular

Examples from the Web for singularly

Contemporary Examples of singularly

Historical Examples of singularly

singular

adjective

noun

Word Origin for singular

singular

singular