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sin·gu·lar (sĭnggyə-lər)
Share:
adj.
1. Being only one; individual; lone: a singular tree in the meadow.
2. Being the only one of a kind; unique: "Our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared" (Barack Obama).
3.
a. Being beyond what is ordinary, especially in being exceptionally good; remarkable: "Dinners with [our two friends] became the evenings we looked forward to with singular pleasure" (David Halberstam).
b. Strange or unusual: "I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons" (Edgar Allan Poe).
4. Grammar
a. Of, relating to, or being a noun, pronoun, or adjective denoting a single person or thing or several entities considered as a single unit.
b. Of, relating to, or being a verb expressing the action or state of a single subject.
5. Logic Of or relating to the specific as distinguished from the general; individual.
n.
Grammar
1. The singular number or a form designating it.
2. A word having a singular number.
[Middle English singuler, from Old French, from Latin singulāris, from singulus, single; see SINGLE.]
singu·lar·ly adv.
singu·lar·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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