— singularly , adv. — singularness , n.
/sing"gyeuh leuhr/ , adj.
1. extraordinary; remarkable; exceptional: a singular success.
2. unusual or strange; odd; different: singular behavior.
3. being the only one of its kind; distinctive; unique: a singular example.
4. separate; individual.
5. Gram. noting or pertaining to a member of the category of number found in many languages that indicates that a word form has one referent or denotes one person, place, thing, or instance, as English boy and thing, which are singular nouns, or goes, a singular form of the verb go. Cf. dual (def. 4), plural (def. 4).
6. Logic.
a. of or pertaining to something individual, specific, or not general.
b. (of a proposition) containing no quantifiers, as "Socrates was mortal."
7. Math.
a. of or pertaining to a linear transformation from a vector space to itself that is not one-to-one.
b. of or pertaining to a matrix having a determinant equal to zero.
8. Obs. private.
9. Obs. single.
n. Gram.
10. the singular number.
11. a form in the singular.
[ 1300-50; ME singularis. See SINGLE, -AR 1 ]
Syn. 1-4. peculiar. 2. bizarre, queer, curious. 3. uncommon, rare. 4. single.
Ant. 1. usual.