noun
definition
(grammar) A form of a word that refers to only one person or thing.
definition
That which is not general; a specific determinate instance.
adjective
definition
Being only one of a larger population.
example
A singular experiment cannot be regarded as scientific proof of the existence of a phenomenon.
synonyms
definition
Being the only one of the kind; unique.
example
She has a singular personality.
synonyms
definition
Distinguished by superiority: peerless, unmatched, eminent, exceptional, extraordinary.
example
a man of singular gravity or attainments
synonyms
definition
Out of the ordinary; curious.
example
It was very singular; I don't know why he did it.
synonyms
definition
(grammar) Referring to only one thing or person.
definition
(of matrix) Having no inverse.
synonyms
definition
(of transformation) Having the property that the matrix of coefficients of the new variables has a determinant equal to zero.
definition
(of a cardinal number) Not equal to its own cofinality.
definition
Each; individual.
example
to convey several parcels of land, all and singular
definition
Engaged in by only one on a side; single.
Examples of singular in a Sentence
His position was one of singular difficulty.
At common law, while a lease was binding on the grantor and his heirs, it was not good against " singular successors," i.e.
The kloof between the mountain and Lion's Head is of singular beauty.
The word was a singular impression of anguish and surprise.
Ricardo's statement of the theory left upon the world an impression, not wholly just, of singular clearness.
It is a singular fact in the geography of Central Italy that the valleys of the Tiber and Arno are in some measure connected by that of the Chiana, a level and marshy tract, the waters from which flow partly into the Arno and partly into the Tiber.
From the testimony of his pupil, and the still more conclusive evidence of his own correspondence with the father, Pavilliard seems to have been a man of singular good sense, temper and tact.
The second great quality is the singular artistic skill and balance with which the Hippocratic physician used such materials and tools as he possessed.
By this desertion his self-esteem, one of his strongest passions, though curiously united with singular sincerity and humility, was doubtless hurt to the quick; but the wound inflicted was of a deeper and deadlier kind, for it confirmed him finally in his despair of the world's gradual amelioration, and established his tendency towards supernaturalism.
The forests of central France during this epoch showed, according to Saporta, a singular admixture of living European species, with trees now characteristic of the Canary Isles and of North America.
It consists of precepts relating to church life, which are couched in the second person plural; whereas The Two Ways uses throughout the second person singular.
The singular fact of the existence of animals so closely allied as the Malayan and the American tapirs in such distant regions of the earth and in no intervening places is accounted for by the geological history of the race, for the tapirs once had a very wide distribution.
Sometimes, though not very often, the sections are in no proper sense essays, but merely commonplace book entries of singular facts or quotations, with hardly any comment.
The most singular, and probably the loftiest, lake in the Alps is the ever-frozen tarn that forms the summit of the Roccia Viva (11,976 ft.) in the Eastern Graians.
The church of St James - also called Schottenkirche - a plain Romanesque basilica of the 12th century, derives its name from the monastery of Irish Benedictines ("Scoti") to which it was attached; the principal doorway is covered with very singular grotesque carvings.
In constituting the text, he imposed upon himself the singular restriction of not inserting any various reading which had not already been printed in some preceding edition of the Greek text.
In many respects this species, the Tringa pugnax of Linnaeus and the Machetes pugnax of modern ornithologists, is one of the most singular in existence.
The recent recovery of the Latin version is of singular interest, as showing that, even without the distinctively Christian additions and interpolations which our full form of the Teaching presents, it was circulating under the title Doctrina apostolorum?
The word itself (in the singular) came to be used in the general sense of "home."
It is certain that originally each household had only one Lar; the plural was at first only used to include other classes of Lares, and only gradually, after the time of Cicero, ousted the singular.
He had a singular faculty for reading the minds and the motives of men, and to this insight he perhaps owed the power of adaptability (called by his opponents shiftiness) which characterized his whole career.
Certainly the priestly writer who produced the latter could not have said that God modelled the first man out of moistened clay, or have adopted the singular account of the formation of Eve in ii.
The singular Colossus bridge, built in 1812 over the Schuylkill, a kind of flat arched truss, had a span of 340 ft.
But it was in Austria that this singular procedure was first brought to technical perfection; and it became an Austrian speciality.
On the proposal of had helped her in the management of her most private affairs and had acted as an intermediary between her and her ministers with singular ability and success.
The end of his life was marked by singular hypochondriacal fancies.
Geneva is well supplied with charitable institutions, hospitals, &c. Among other remarkable sights of the city may be mentioned the great hydraulic establishment (built 1882-1899) of the Forces Motrices du Rhone (turbines), the singular monument set up to the memory of the late duke of Brunswick who left his fortune to the city in 1873, and the tie Jean-Jacques Rousseau now connected with the Pont des Bergues.
Certainly it was not the " priest " who did so, for he in this narrative is always in the singular.
It is singular that the second law is still ignored by many zoologists.
The separation of the Pipils from the chief tribes of the Nahuatl branch happened centuries before the conquest, and they developed a singular and characteristic civilization, which can be seen in the wonderful stone-reliefs and sculptures of Sta Lucia de Cozumalhuapa on the Pacific coast of Guatemala.
He was put out of all need of money by the singular benefaction of Cotta, the well-known Stuttgart publisher, who was part-proprietor of the Constitutionnel, and made over to Thiers his dividends, or part of them.
The strongly marked characteristics which determined Isaac D'Israeli's career were displayed to a singular degree even in his boyhood.
It is with respect to this number of segments that respectively constitute the pygidium and the midregion of the body that Trilobites differ most markedly from each other; and it is a singular fact that the extremes in structural organization in this particular to be met with in the Trilobita are found side by side in strata of Cambrian age.
Officially the name is The United States of America, but The United States (used as a singular and not a plural) has become accepted as the name of the country; and pre-eminent usage has now made its citizens Americans, in distinctiofi from the other inhabitants of North and South America.
In A Copper Cylinder (1888), Describes A Singular Race Whose Cardinal Doctrine Is That Poverty Is Honourable And Wealth The Reverse.
The work of criticism has brought to light important examples of fluctuating tradition, singular lacunae in some places and unusual wealth of tradition in others, and has demonstrated that much of that which had long been felt to be impossible and incredible was due to writers of the post-exilic age many centuries after the presumed date of the events.
With singular fatuity Charles had taken no precautions in view of a violent outbreak.
The result of V6 r ellesley's singular personal ascendancy among the Mahrattas came into full view when the Mahratta War broke out.
The most singular feature in connexion with the history of silk is the persistent efforts which have been made by monarchs and other potentates to stimulate sericulture within their dominions, efforts which continue to this day in British colonies, India and America.
It was, as Carlyle wrote to the author, "a sermon in stones," "a singular sign of the times," "a new Renaissance."
Although reared as an ordinary farm lad, he proved to be a man of singular devotion and spiritual genius.
Their most singular feature, perhaps, was their reverence for the sun.
Dread of the Normans, too, explains the singular attitude of the Curia towards the Comneni, of whom it was alternately the enemy and the protector or ally.
That a sovereign like St Louis should be able to associate himself officially with the feudalism of his realm to repress abuses of church jurisdiction; that a contemporary of Philip the Fair, the lawyer Pierre Dubois, should dare to suggest the secularization of ecclesiastical property and the conversion of the clergy into a class of functionaries paid out of the royal treasury; and that Philip the Fair, the adversary of Boniface VIII., should be able to rely in his conflict with the leader of the Church on the popular consent obtained at a meeting of the Three Estates of France - all point to a singular demoralization of the sentiments and principles on which were based the whole power of the pontiff of Rome and the entire organization of medieval Catholicism.
A large spinning-mill and coalpits lend a modern touch in singular contrast with the quaint, old-world aspect of the place.
The scribes show no suspicion, however, of the name's being, anything but a singular.'
Dr Thomas Hill's work, The Contemplation of Hankynde, contayning a singular Discourse after the Art of Physiognomie, published in 1571, is a quaintly written adaptation from the Italian authors of the day.
It was smaller than the temple of Zeus, and, while resembling it in general plan, differed from it by its singular length relatively to its breadth.
Some cuckoos are singular for their habit of using the nests of smaller birds to lay their eggs in, so that the young may be reared by foster-parents; and it has been suggested that the object of the likeness exhibited to the hawk is to enable the cock cuckoo either to frighten the small birds away from their nests or to lure them in pursuit of him, while the hen bird quietly and without molestation disposes of her egg.
Sometimes Lepidoptera mimic protected members of other orders of insects - such as Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Hemiptera; but perhaps the most singular illustrations of the phenomenon known in the order are exemplified by the larvae of the hawk-moth Chaerocampa, which imitate the heads of snakes.