Word.ws English Dictionary

single

UK/ˈsɪŋɡl̩//ˈsɪŋɡəl/

single adjective: not accompanied by anything else; one in number.

Adjective

single (not comparable)

  1. Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
    • Can you give me a single reason not to leave right now?
    • The vase contained a single long-stemmed rose.
    Synonyms:
    lone, sole, solitary
  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
    • These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, […] / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC
  5. Not married, and (in modern times) not dating or without a significant other.
    • 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. Having only one rank or row of petals.
  7. (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
    • 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?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke xj
    • I speak it with a single heart.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)...
  8. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
    • simple ideas are opposed to complex , and single ideas to compound.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, […]...
    • 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.1867, William Greenough Thayer Shedd, Homiletics, and Pastoral Theology, page 166
  9. (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
    • He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.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...

Noun

single (plural singles)

  1. A vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B, usually 7 inches in diameter and played at 45 RPM.
    Antonyms:
    album
  2. 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.
    • He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
    Antonyms:
    married
  4. A score of one run.
    • He refused to take a single as the ball was dropped by his opponent's best fielder.
  5. A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
  6. 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.
    • She looked in her purse, found a ten and a single, gave him the ten. ‘I'll spend it on booze,’ he said.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 94
  8. (UK) A one-way ticket.
    • ‘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.’1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle
  9. (Canadian) 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.
    Synonyms:
    rouge
  10. (in plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
    • 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.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 18
  11. One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
  12. (Scotland, UK, dialectal) A handful of gleaned grain.
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A floating-point number having half the precision of a double-precision value.
    • If you want to be a scientist or an engineer, learn to say “no” to singles and floats.2011, Rubin H. Landau, A First Course in Scientific Computing, page 214
  2. A shot of only one character.
    • 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.1990, Jon Boorstin, The Hollywood Eye: What Makes Movies Work, page 94
  3. A single cigarette.
  4. (obsolete) Synonym of single-driver.
    • 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.1945 March and April, “Preserving Historic Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 64
    Synonyms:
    single-driver

Verb

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

  1. 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. To thin out.
    • Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 7, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC
    • 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.1916, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, page 241
  3. To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
    • 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.1860, William S. Clark, Massachusetts Agricultural College Annual Report
  4. (archaic, intransitive) To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
    • an agent singling itself from consorts[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
  5. (archaic, intransitive) To take alone, or one by one; to single out.
    • men […] commendable when they are singled[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
  6. (transitive) To reduce (a railway) to single track.
    • 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; […]1959 June, “Talking of Trains: North Eastern report”, in Trains Illustrated, page 293
    • The Henley branch, recently singled and fully track-circuited, is worked by acceptance lever between Twyford and Shiplake cabins.1962 October, “Talking of Trains: New signalbox at Twyford”, in Modern Railways, page 226

Proper noun capitalized: Single

Single (plural Singles)

  1. A surname from Old English.

single meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

single in Hindi

not accompanied by anything else
अकेला akelā
not divided in parts
वाहिद vāhid
not married nor dating
अविवाहित avivāhit
one who is not married
सिंगल siṅgal, अविवाहित avivāhit

single in Tamil

ஒற்றை, திருமணம் ஆகாத, ஒரு கூட்டத்தில் இருந்து பிரி, பிரித்து எடு, தனியாள், தனிநபர்

single in Urdu

single
واحد vāhid, تنہا tanhā
single; singular
یکتا yaktā
single, lone
اکلوتا iklautā

single in Bengali

এক, এক রান, দ্বন্দ্বক্রীড়া, একক, অবিবাহিত, একমাত্র
More languagesFewer languages
single in Telugu
ఒంటి oṇṭi
single in Malayalam
ഒരൊറ്റ oroṟṟa, ഏക ēka
single in Kannada
ಉಂಡಿಗ, ಒಬ್ಬಂಟಿಗ, ಒಬ್ಬಂಟಿತನ, ಏಕಾಕಿತನ
single in Punjabi
ਸਿੰਗਲ
single in Gujarati
કુંવારું kũvārũ, એકલું ekalũ
single in Odia
କେବଳ kebaḷa, ଅଦ୍ୱୟ adwaya, ଖାଲି khāli
single in Sanskrit
एकक ekaká
single in Sinhala
තනි tani
single in Nepali
एकल
single in Pashto
يګانه yagāna
single in Arabic
أَحَادِيّ ʔaḥādiyy, وَاحِد wāḥid, أَعْزَب ʔaʕzab, غَيْر مُتَزَوِّج ḡayr mutazawwij
single in Malay
bujang, tunggal
single in Indonesian
tembang, singel
single in Persian
یک yek, یکدونه yekdune, یک دانه yek dâne, سینگل singel
single in Thai
เดียว diao, โสด sòot
single in Vietnamese
độc thân, đĩa đơn

Examples of single in a sentence

  • The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages.2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:
  • Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]...
  • Now I live a single life and I find it's another world / I'm not even the same, I'm a different girl / Yesterday I was somebody's baby / Now today I'm a woman on my own1986, Phyllis Hyman, “Living All Alone”, in Living All Alone:
  • 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.2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in RAIL, number 918, page 48:

All 40 example sentences with single

Synonyms of single

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of single

Forms of single

Noun
pluralsingles
Verb
third-person singular presentsingles
present participlesingling
past participlesingled
pastsingled
Proper noun
pluralSingles

Past tense of single: singled

Plural of single: singles

Origin of 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.

From Old English sengel (“brushwood; burnt clearing”), a topographic surname for someone who lived by a brushwood.

Words formed from single

Phrases with single

73 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with single

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about single

What does single mean?
Single means not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
What is single in Hindi?
Single in Hindi is अकेला (akelā), अविवाहित (avivāhit), वाहिद (vāhid). See Single meaning in Hindi.
How do you use single in a sentence?
The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages.
What part of speech is single?
Single can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce single?
Single is pronounced /ˈsɪŋɡl̩/ (UK).

Words near single in the dictionary

  1. Singkawang
  2. singkek
  3. Singkiang
  4. Singla
  5. Singlas
  6. single
  7. single action
  8. single and ready to mingle
  9. single angle quote
  10. single angle quotes
  11. single annulus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: single (page history and authors); Single (page history and authors); single (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اکلوتا (Urdu) (page history and authors); single (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ఒంటి (Telugu) (page history and authors); ഏക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); single (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); single (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); એકલું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଅଦ୍ୱୟ (Odia) (page history and authors); एकक (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); තනි (Sinhala) (page history and authors); single (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); يګانه (Pashto) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-single.ogg, En-au-single.ogg.

Cite this entry: “single.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/single. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.