single

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English[edit]

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Etymology[edit]

From Middle English sengle, from Old French sengle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive from the root in simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.

Pronunciation[edit]

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
    • Milton
      These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, […] / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.
  5. 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".
    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.
  6. (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
  7. (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.
  8. 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.
  9. (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
    • Beaumont and Fletcher
      He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Derived terms

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Noun[edit]

single (plural singles)

  1. (music) A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
  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.
    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.

Antonyms[edit]

  • (45rpm vinyl record): album
  • (one who is not married): married

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.
    • Francis Bacon
      dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark
  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.
    • 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.
  5. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
    • Hooker
      an agent singling itself from consorts
  6. To take alone, or one by one.
    • Hooker
      men […] commendable when they are singled

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]

Statistics[edit]

Most common English words before 1923 in Project Gutenberg: sweet · duty · heavy · #615: single · foot · beauty · attention

Anagrams[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from English single.

Noun[edit]

single m (plural singles)

  1. single

Finnish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from English single.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈsiŋle/
  • Hyphenation: sing‧le

Noun[edit]

single

  1. single (45 rpm record)

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

See also[edit]

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from English single.

Noun[edit]

single m, 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)

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing 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

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from English single and singles.

Alternative forms[edit]

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]

Borrowing from English single.

Noun[edit]

single m (plural singles)

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

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from English single.

Noun 1[edit]

single m (plural singles)

  1. single (song released)

Noun 2[edit]

single m, f (plural singles)

  1. single, single person
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