single

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See also: Single

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia
English numbers (edit)
10[a], [b]
1 2  → [a], [b]
    Cardinal: one
    Ordinal: first, proto-
    Latinate ordinal: primary
    Adverbial: once
    Multiplier: single, onefold
    Distributive: singly
    Collective: monad, onesome
    Fractional: whole
    Number of musicians: solo

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈsɪŋɡəl/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Audio (AU)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋɡəl

Adjective[edit]

single (not comparable)

  1. 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.
    Can you give me a single reason not to leave right now?
    The vase contained a single long-stemmed rose.
  2. Not divided in parts.
    The potatoes left the spoon and landed in a single big lump on the plate.
  3. Designed for the use of only one.
    a single room
  4. Performed by one person, or one on each side.
    a single combat
  5. Not married or (in modern times) not involved in a romantic relationship without being married 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".
    Josh put down that he was a single male on the dating website.
  6. (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
  7. (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
  8. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
    • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard
      simple ideas are opposed to complex , and single ideas 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.
  9. (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from single

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

single (plural singles)

  1. (music) A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
    Antonym: album
  2. (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.
  3. One who is not married or does not have a romantic partner.
    Antonym: married
    He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
  4. (cricket) A score of one run.
  5. (baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
  6. (dominoes) A tile that has a different value (i.e. number of pips) at each end.
  7. A bill valued at $1.
    I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.
  8. (Britain) A one-way ticket.
  9. (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.
  10. (tennis, chiefly in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
  11. One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
  12. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
  13. (computing, programming) A floating-point number having half the precision of a double-precision value.
    Coordinate term: double
    • 2011, Rubin H. Landau, A First Course in Scientific Computing (page 214)
      If you want to be a scientist or an engineer, learn to say “no” to singles and floats.
  14. (film) A shot of only one character.
    • 1990, Jon Boorstin, The Hollywood Eye: What Makes Movies Work (page 94)
      But if the same scene is shot in singles (or “over-the-shoulder” shots where one of the actors is only a lumpy shoulder in the foreground), the editor and the director can almost redirect the scene on film.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

one-way ticket — see one-way ticket

See also[edit]

Verb[edit]

single (third-person singular simple present singles, present participle singling, simple past and past participle singled)

  1. 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.
    • 1915, Austen Chamberlain, speech on April 16, 1915
      Sir John French says that if he is to single out one regiment in the fighting at Ypres it is the Worcesters he would name? I do plead that some person should record these events, so that our history, national and local, may be the richer for them, that the children may be stimulated to do their duty by the knowledge of the way in which our soldiers are doing theirs to-day.
  2. (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.
  3. (agriculture) To thin out.
  4. (of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
    • 1860, William S. Clark, Massachusetts Agricultural College Annual Report
      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.
  5. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
    • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
      an agent singling itself from consorts
  6. To take alone, or one by one.
    • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
      men […] commendable when they are singled
  7. To reduce a railway to single track.
    • 1962 October, “Talking of Trains: New signalbox at Twyford”, in Modern Railways, page 226:
      The Henley branch, recently singled and fully track-circuited, is worked by acceptance lever between Twyford and Shiplake cabins.
    • 2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in RAIL, number 918, page 48:
      Sadly, it's not the quickest route as much of it has been singled, but it still boasts some attractive stations as well as an active Community Rail Partnership, one of the first in the country.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

farming: to thin out — see thin out

See also[edit]

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

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

single m (plural singles)

  1. (music) single

Further reading[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (music record or track): IPA(key): /ˈsɪŋ.əl/, /ˈsɪŋ.ɡəl/
  • ((person) without romantic partner): IPA(key): /ˈsɪŋ.ɡəl/
  • Audio
    		(file)
  • Hyphenation: sin‧gle

Noun[edit]

single m (plural singles, diminutive singletje n)

  1. A single (short music record, e.g. 45 RPM vinyl with an A side and a B side; main track of such a record).
  2. A single (person without a romantic partner).

Derived terms[edit]

Adjective[edit]

single (not comparable)

  1. single (without a romantic partner)

Inflection[edit]

Inflection of single
uninflected single
inflected single
comparative —
positive
predicative/adverbial single
indefinite m./f. sing. single
n. sing. single
plural single
definite single
partitive singles

Finnish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈsiŋle/, [ˈs̠iŋle̞]
  • Rhymes: -iŋle
  • Syllabification: sing‧le

Noun[edit]

single

  1. single (45 rpm record; track nominally released on its own)

Declension[edit]

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
Possessive forms of single (type nalle)
possessor singular plural
1st person singleni singlemme
2nd person singlesi singlenne
3rd person singlensä

See also[edit]

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single.

Noun[edit]

single m or f (invariable)

  1. single, loner (person who lives alone and has no emotional ties)

Adjective[edit]

single (invariable)

  1. single (unmarried, not in a relationship)
    Synonym: (formal) celibe

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single and singles.

Noun[edit]

single m (definite singular singlen, indefinite plural singler, definite plural singlene)

  1. (music) a single (record or CD)
  2. (sports) singles (e.g. in tennis)

Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single and singles.

Noun[edit]

single m (definite singular singlen, indefinite plural singlar, definite plural singlane)

  1. (music) a single (record or CD)
  2. (sports) singles (e.g. in tennis)

Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

single m (plural singles)

  1. (music) single (song released on its own or with an extra track)

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English single. Doublet of sendos.

Noun 1[edit]

single m (plural singles)

  1. single (song released)

Noun 2[edit]

single m or f (plural singles)

  1. single, single person
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