singular

American  

[sing-gyuh-ler] / ˈsɪŋ gyə lər /

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.

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noun

Grammar.

1. the singular number.

2. a form in the singular.

singular British  

/ 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

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noun

1. grammar

   1. the singular number

   2. a singular form of a word

singular Cultural  

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.)

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Other Word Forms

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

Etymology

Origin of singular

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

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.”

From The Wall Street Journal

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

From 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."

From BBC

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

From The Wall Street Journal

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

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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