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): /ˈsɪŋɡəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋɡəl
• Homophone: cingle

single (not comparable)

1. Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.

   Synonyms: lone, sole

   • 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.

   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

   • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

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

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.

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     To undergo such maiden pilgrimage.
     But earthlier happy is the rose distilled
     Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
     Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     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, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke xj]:

     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?

   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare; [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     I speak it with a single heart.

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.
   • 1616–1618, John Fletcher; Philip Massinger; Nathan Field, “The Queene of Corinth”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene i:

     He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.

• singular
• singularity
• singularly

single (plural singles)

1. (music) A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.

   Antonym: album

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 or does not have a romantic partner.

   Antonym: 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. (US, informal) A bill valued at $1.

   I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.

   • 1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, →ISBN, page 94:

     She looked in her purse, found a ten and a single, gave him the ten. ‘I'll spend it on booze,’ he said.

8. (UK) 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.

   Synonym: (official name in the rules) 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. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
13. (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.

14. (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.

15. A single cigarette.
16. (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.

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

• → Finnish: sinkku
• → German: Single
• → Japanese: シングル (shinguru)

• baseball
• cricket

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

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) 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.

   • 1915, Austen Chamberlain, speech on April 16, 1915

     Sir John French says that if he is to single out one regiment in the fighting at Ypres it is the Worcesters he would name? I do plead that some person should record these events, so that our history, national and local, may be the richer for them, that the children may be stimulated to do their duty by the knowledge of the way in which our soldiers are doing theirs to-day.

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, 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.

4. (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.

5. (intransitive, archaic) To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     an agent singling itself from consorts

6. (intransitive, archaic) To take alone, or one by one; to single out.
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     men […] commendable when they are singled

7. (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.

• single out

• single in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “single”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• Nigels, glinse, ingles

Unadapted borrowing from English single.

single (indeclinable)

1. single (not in a relationship)

   Antonym: vergee

Borrowed from English single.

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /ˈsiŋ.ɡəl/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈsiŋ.ɡel/

single m (plural singles)

1. (music) single

• “single” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “single”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “single” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

Borrowed from English single.

• (music record or track): IPA^(key): /ˈsɪŋ.əl/, /ˈsɪŋ.ɡəl/
• ((person) without romantic partner): IPA^(key): /ˈsɪŋ.ɡəl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sin‧gle

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).

• debuutsingle
• hitsingle

single (not comparable)

1. single (without a romantic partner)

Borrowed from English single.

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

single

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

• pitkäsoitto

single m (plural singles)

1. single room
2. (music) single

• “single”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from English single.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsin.ɡol/[1]
• Rhymes: -inɡol
• Hyphenation: sìn‧gle

single m or f by sense (invariable)

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

single (invariable)

1. single (unmarried, not in a relationship)

   Synonym: (formal) celibe

• singlai, singlay (obsolete)

From sangle.

• Hyphenation: sing‧le
• IPA^(key): /sɪŋˈle/, [sɪŋˈlɛː]

singlé

1. fried rice

singlé

1. complete aspect of isangle

• singel

Borrowed from English single and singles.

single

1. plural of singel

single m (definite singular singlen, indefinite plural singler, definite plural singlene)

1. (music) a single (record or CD)

   Synonym: singelplate

2. (sports) singles (e.g. in tennis)

From singel.

single (imperative single, present tense singler, simple past and past participle singla or singlet)

1. to sprinkle or scatter shingle

• “single” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “single” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

• 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.

Unadapted borrowing 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)

Unadapted borrowing from English single. Doublet of singur.

single n (plural single-uri)

1. single (album)

Unadapted borrowing from English single. Doublet of sendos.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsinɡle/ [ˈsĩŋ.ɡle]
• Rhymes: -inɡle
• Syllabification: sin‧gle

single m (plural singles)

1. single (song released)

single m or f (plural singles)

1. single, single person

single

1. inflection of singlar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “single”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Unadapted borrowing from English single.

• IPA^(key): /siŋɡɫ̩/

single (definite accusative singleı, plural singlelar)

1. (music) single