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single

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Single

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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English numbers (edit)
10
1 2  →  10  → 
    Cardinal: one
    Ordinal: first
    Abbreviated ordinal: 1st
    Latinate ordinal: primary
    Reverse order ordinal: last
    Latinate reverse order ordinal: ultimate
    Adverbial: one time, once
    Multiplier: onefold
    Latinate multiplier: single
    Distributive: singly
    Germanic collective: onesome
    Collective of n parts: singlet, singleton
    Greek or Latinate collective: monad
    Greek collective prefix: mono-
    Latinate collective prefix: uni-
    Fractional: whole
    Elemental: singlet, singleton
    Greek prefix: proto-
    Number of musicians: solo
    Number of years: year

Etymology

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

Adjective

single (not comparable)

  1. Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
    Synonyms: lone, sole, solitary
    Can you give me a single reason not to leave right now?
    The vase contained a single long-stemmed rose.
    • 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.
  2. Not divided in parts.
    Synonyms: unbroken, undivided, uniform
    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, and (in modern times) not dating or without a significant other.
    Synonyms: unmarried, unpartnered, available
    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, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:
      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.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

single (plural singles)

  1. (music) A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
    Antonym: album
  3. (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.
  4. 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.
  5. (cricket) A score of one run.
    He refused to take a single as the ball was dropped by his opponent's best fielder.
  6. (baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
  7. (dominoes) A tile that has a different value (i.e. number of pips) at each end.
  8. (US, informal) A bill valued at $1.
    I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.
  9. (UK) A one-way ticket.
    • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
      ‘I want to know, Mr Stone, if, in the course of the day, you have issued any tickets to a person dressed in Arab costume?’
      His reply was prompt.
      ‘I have — by the last train, the 7.25, — three singles.’
  10. (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.
    Synonym: (official name in the rules) rouge
  11. (tennis, chiefly in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
    • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 18:
      After tea, Mrs. Inglethorp went to lie down to rest before her efforts in the evening and I challenged Mary Cavendish to a single at tennis.
  12. One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
  13. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
  14. (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.
  15. (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.
  16. A single cigarette.
  17. (rail transport, obsolete) Synonym of single-driver.
    • 1945 March and April, “Preserving Historic Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 64:
      A few such examples have been preserved, as is well known, such as one of the Stirling 8-ft. singles of the late Great Northern Railway, the Great Western 4-4-0 City of Truro, ex-Caledonian single-driver No. 123, the Brighton 0-4-2 Gladstone, and others.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Dutch: single
  • → Finnish: sinkku
  • → German: Single
  • → Indonesian: singel
  • → Japanese: シングル (shinguru)
  • → Korean: 싱글 (singgeul)
  • → Polish: singiel

Translations

See also

Verb

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

  1. (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.
  2. (agriculture) To thin out.
    • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 7, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
      Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.
    • 1916, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, page 241:
      The seeds did not germinate in many parts of a row until rains in end of June and thunderplumps in first week of July brought them up later in patches, so that no second sowing was necessary, but singling was done by stages.
  3. (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.
  4. (intransitive, archaic) To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
  5. (intransitive, archaic) To take alone, or one by one; to single out.
  6. (transitive) To reduce (a railway) to single track.
    • 1959 June, “Talking of Trains: North Eastern report”, in Trains Illustrated, page 293:
      In the east of Yorkshire, Mr. A. M. Ross reports the belief of local railwaymen that the N.E.R. plans to single the York-Beverley line, leaving an adequate provision of passing loops, and to operate it by C.T.C. from York; […]
    • 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

Translations

See also

More information Number, Modifier ...

References

Anagrams

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Alemannic German

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English single.

Adjective

single (indeclinable)

  1. single (not in a relationship)
    Antonym: vergee

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation

Noun

single m (plural singles)

  1. (music) single

Further reading

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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)
    Synonym: alleenstaande

Derived terms

Adjective

single (not comparable)

  1. single (without a romantic partner)
    Synonyms: alleenstaand, alleengaand

Declension

More information Declension of, uninflected ...
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Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from English single.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

single

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

Declension

More information nominative, genitive ...
More information first-person singular possessor, singular ...

Derived terms

compounds

See also

Further reading

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French

Noun

single m (plural singles)

  1. single room
  2. (music) single

Further reading

Italian

Kapampangan

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Nynorsk

Portuguese

Romanian

Spanish

Turkish

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