single
See also: Single
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English sengle, from Old French sengle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive from the root in simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
single (not comparable)
- Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
-
2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:
- The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail. It’s therefore not surprising that most cameras mimic this arrangement.
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Can you give me a single reason not to leave right now? The vase contained a single long-stemmed rose.
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- Not divided in parts.
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The potatoes left the spoon and landed in a single big lump on the plate.
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- Designed for the use of only one.
-
a single room
-
- Performed by one person, or one on each side.
- a single combat
- Milton
- These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, […] / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.
- Not married, and also in modern times, not involved in an unmarried romantic relationship or not dating anyone exclusively.
-
Forms often ask if a person is single, married, divorced, or widowed. In this context, a person who is dating someone but who has never married puts "single".
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Josh put down that he was a single male on the dating website.
- Shakespeare
- Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
- Dryden
- Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.
-
- (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
- (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XI:
- Therefore, when thyne eye is single: then is all thy boddy full off light. Butt if thyne eye be evyll: then shall all thy body be full of darknes?
- Shakespeare
- I speak it with a single heart.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XI:
- Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
- I. Watts
- Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound.
- 1867, William Greenough Thayer Shedd, Homiletics, and Pastoral Theology (page 166)
- The most that is required is, that the passage of Scripture, selected as the foundation of the sacred oration, should, like the oration itself, be single, full, and unsuperfluous in its character.
- I. Watts
- (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
- He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
SynonymsEdit
- (not accompanied by anything else): lone, sole
- (not divided in parts): unbroken, undivided, uniform
- (not married): unmarried, available
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
- single-acting
- single bed
- single-blind/single blind
- single bond
- single-cell
- single-celled
- single-click
- single combat
- single cream
- single crochet
- single cross
- single crystal
- single currency
- single data rate
- single-decker
- singledom
- single-elimination
- single entry
- single-eyed
- single file
- single flower
- single-fold
- single-foot
- single grave
- single-handed
- single-handedly
- single-hearted
- singlehood
- single-horse
- single-issue
- single leaf
- single-line
- single knot
- single malt
- single market
- single-minded
- single money
- single mother
- singleness
- single-o
- single option
- single parent
- single-phase
- single-phasing
- singleplayer
- single-ply roof
- single pneumonia
- single-point
- single-point urban interchange
- single point of failure
- single precision
- single prop
- single quote
- singler
- single scull
- single-sex
- single shell
- single shot
- single-shot
- single sourcing
- single-space
- single-spaced
- single-spacing
- single standard
- single star system
- singlestick
- single stitch
- single supplement
- singlet
- single tax
- singleton
- single track
- single union agreement
- single-valued
- single-wide
- single-word
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
not accompanied by anything else
|
not divided in parts
designed for the use of only one
|
not married nor dating
|
|
Related termsEdit
NounEdit
single (plural singles)
- (music) A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
- (music) A popular song released and sold (on any format) nominally on its own though usually having at least one extra track.
- The Offspring released four singles from their most recent album.
- One who is not married.
- He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
- (cricket) A score of one run.
- (baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
- (dominoes) A tile that has a different value (i.e. number of pips) at each end.
- A bill valued at $1.
- I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.
- (Britain) A one-way ticket.
- (Canadian football) A score of one point, awarded when a kicked ball is dead within the non-kicking team's end zone or has exited that end zone. Officially known in the rules as a rouge.
- (tennis, chiefly in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
- One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
- (Britain, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
45 RPM vinyl record
popular song
one who is not married
|
|
cricket: score of one run
baseball: hit
|
|
bill valued at $1
|
one-way ticket — see one-way ticket
See alsoEdit
VerbEdit
single (third-person singular simple present singles, present participle singling, simple past and past participle singled)
- To identify or select one member of a group from the others; generally used with out, either to single out or to single (something) out.
- Eddie singled out his favorite marble from the bag.
- Yvonne always wondered why Ernest had singled her out of the group of giggling girls she hung around with.
- Francis Bacon
- dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark
- (baseball) To get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base.
- Pedro singled in the bottom of the eighth inning, which, if converted to a run, would put the team back into contention.
- (agriculture) To thin out.
- 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 7
- Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.
- 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 7
- (of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
- W. S. Clark
- Many very fleet horses, when overdriven, adopt a disagreeable gait, which seems to be a cross between a pace and a trot, in which the two legs of one side are raised almost but not quite, simultaneously. Such horses are said to single, or to be single-footed.
- W. S. Clark
- To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
- Hooker
- an agent singling itself from consorts
- Hooker
- To take alone, or one by one.
- Hooker
- men […] commendable when they are singled
- Hooker
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to identify or select one member of a group
baseball: to get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base
farming: to thin out — see thin out
of a horse: to take the singlefoot gait
See alsoEdit
| Coefficient | Noun | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | single | singlet |
| 2 | double | doublet twin |
| 3 | triple | triplet |
| 4 | quadruple | quadruplet |
| 5 | quintuple pentuple |
quintuplet pentuplet |
| 6 | sextuple hextuple |
sextuplet hextuplet |
| 7 | septuple heptuple |
septuplet heptuplet |
| 8 | octuple | octuplet |
| 9 | nonuple | nonuplet |
| 10 | decuple | decuplet |
| 11 | undecuple hendecuple |
undecuplet hendecuplet |
| 12 | duodecuple | duodecuplet |
| 13 | tredecuple | tredecuplet |
| 100 | centuple | centuplet |
| many | multiple | multiplet |
ReferencesEdit
- single in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- “single” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2017.
StatisticsEdit
Most common English words before 1923 in Project Gutenberg: sweet · duty · heavy · #615: single · foot · beauty · attention
CatalanEdit
FinnishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowing from English single.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
single
- single (45 rpm record)
DeclensionEdit
| Inflection of single (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | single | singlet | |
| genitive | singlen | singlejen | |
| partitive | singleä | singlejä | |
| illative | singleen | singleihin | |
| singular | plural | ||
| nominative | single | singlet | |
| accusative | nom. | single | singlet |
| gen. | singlen | ||
| genitive | singlen | singlejen singleinrare |
|
| partitive | singleä | singlejä | |
| inessive | singlessä | singleissä | |
| elative | singlestä | singleistä | |
| illative | singleen | singleihin | |
| adessive | singlellä | singleillä | |
| ablative | singleltä | singleiltä | |
| allative | singlelle | singleille | |
| essive | singlenä | singleinä | |
| translative | singleksi | singleiksi | |
| instructive | — | singlein | |
| abessive | singlettä | singleittä | |
| comitative | — | singleineen | |
See alsoEdit
ItalianEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowing from English single.
NounEdit
single m, f (invariable)
AdjectiveEdit
single (invariable)
- single (unmarried, not in a relationship)
Norwegian BokmålEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowing from English single and singles.
NounEdit
single m (definite singular singlen, indefinite plural singler, definite plural singlene)
SynonymsEdit
- singelplate (record)
ReferencesEdit
- “single” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian NynorskEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowing from English single and singles.
Alternative formsEdit
NounEdit
single m (definite singular singlen, indefinite plural singlar, definite plural singlane)
SynonymsEdit
- singelplate (record)
ReferencesEdit
- “single” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
PortugueseEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowing from English single.
NounEdit
single m (plural singles)
- single (song released on its own or with an extra track)