single

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪŋɡl/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋɡəl

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

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, […] / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.

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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

   • (Can we date this quote?) 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?

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     I speak it with a single heart.

8. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
   • (Can we date this quote?) 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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Beaumont and Fletcher

     He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.

• (not accompanied by anything else): lone, sole
• (not divided in parts): unbroken, undivided, uniform
• (not married): unmarried, available

• (not married): divorced, married, widowed, taken
• (not single, in a relationship, but with separate households): living apart together, LAT

• singular
• singularity
• singularly

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, dialectal) A handful of gleaned grain.

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

• cassingle
• lead single
• singles bar
• singles charts
• split single
• CD single

• baseball
• cricket

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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) 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.
   • 1913, }}w|D.H. Lawrence}}, Sons and Lovers, chapter 7

     Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.

4. (of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
   • (Can we date this quote?) 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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Hooker

     an agent singling itself from consorts

6. To take alone, or one by one.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Hooker

     men […] commendable when they are singled

• single out

• single in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “single” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

• Nigels, ingles

Borrowed from English single.

single m (plural singles)

1. single

Borrowed from English single.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiŋle/, [ˈs̠iŋle̞]
• Hyphenation: sing‧le

single

1. single (45 rpm record)

• pitkäsoitto

Borrowed from English single.

single m or f (invariable)

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

single (invariable)

1. single (unmarried, not in a relationship)

   Synonym: celibe (formal)

• singel

Borrowed from English single and singles.

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)

• singelplate (record)

• “single” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• singel

Borrowed from English single and singles.

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)

• singelplate (record)

• “single” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English single.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsĩ.ɡow/

single m (plural singles)

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

Borrowed from English single. Doublet of sendos.

single m (plural singles)

1. single (song released)

single m or f (plural singles)

1. single, single person