Only vs Single - What's the difference?
only | single |
Alone in a category.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=
, volume=189, issue=7, page=32, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Singularly Superior; the best.
* (William Shakespeare)
Without sibling; without a sibling of the same gender.
* 1949 , and (Ernestine Gilbreth Carey), (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
(label) Mere.
* , I.40:
Without others or anything further; exclusively.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=
, volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= No more than; just.
* 1949 , Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=20 * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= As recently as.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (obsolete) Above all others; particularly.
* Marston
Under the condition that; but.
However.
But for the fact that; except.
(rare) only child
* 2013 , Sybil L. Hart, ?Maria Legerstee, Handbook of Jealousy
Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= Not divided in parts.
Designed for the use of only one.
Performed by one person, or one on each side.
* Milton
Not married, and also not dating.
* Shakespeare
* Dryden
(botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
(obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Luke XI:
* Shakespeare
Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
* I. Watts
(obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
A 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.
A popular song released and sold (on any format) nominally on its own though usually has at least one extra track.
One who is not married.
(cricket) A score of one run.
(baseball) A hit in baseball where the batter advances to first base.
(dominoes) A tile that has different values (i.e., number of pips) in each end.
A bill valued at $1.
(UK) A one-way ticket.
(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.
(tennis, chiefly, in the plural) A game with one player on each side, as in tennis.
One of the reeled filaments of silk, twisted without doubling to give them firmness.
(UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.
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 .
* Francis Bacon
(baseball) To get a hit that advances the batter exactly one base.
(agriculture) To thin out.
* 1913 ,
(of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
* W. S. Clark
To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
* Hooker
To take alone, or one by one.
* Hooker
In obsolete terms the difference between only and single
is that only is above all others; particularly while single is simple; foolish; weak; silly.As adjectives the difference between only and single
is that only is alone in a category while single is not accompanied by anything else; one in number.As nouns the difference between only and single
is that only is only child while single is a 45 RPM vinyl record with one song on side A and one on side B.As an adverb only
is without others or anything further; exclusively.As a conjunction only
is under the condition that; but.As a verb single is
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.only
English
Alternative forms
* onely (obsolete)Adjective
(-)Nick Miroff
Mexico gets a taste for eating insects, passage=The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile. Only the city zoo offers greater species diversity.}}
- Motley's the only wear.
- To DAD ¶ who only reared twelve children ¶ and ¶ To MOTHER ¶ who reared twelve only children
- I know some who wittingly have drawne both profit and preferment from cuckoldrie, the only name whereof is so yrksome and bail-ful to so many men.
Synonyms
* (alone in a category) sole, lone * (singularly superior) peerless, unequaled, nonpareilDerived terms
* if any * if only * one and only * only child * only game in town * only ifAdverb
(-)Ed Pilkington
‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told, passage=In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.}}
- To DAD
- who only reared twelve children
- and
- To MOTHER
- who reared twelve only children
citation, passage=‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’}}
Engineers of a different kind, passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
Yesterday’s fuel, passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
- his most only elected mistress
Derived terms
* if and only if * only ifConjunction
(English Conjunctions)Statistics
*Noun
(onlies)- The consistent finding that infants who are onlies do not differ from those who have siblings despite their lesser history of exposure to differential treatment is perplexing.
single
English
Adjective
(-)Fenella Saunders
Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=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.}}
- a single combat
- These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.
- Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
- Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.
- 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?
- I speak it with a single heart.
- Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound.
- He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice.
Synonyms
* (not accompanied by anything else) lone, sole * (not divided in parts) unbroken, undivided, uniform * (not married) unmarriedAntonyms
* (single) divorced, married, widowedDerived terms
* single-acting * single bed * single-blind/single blind * single bond * single-cell * single-celled * single-click * single combat * single cream * single crochet * single cross * single crystal * single currency * single data rate * single-decker * singledom * single-elimination * single entry * single-eyed * single file * single flower * single-fold * single-foot * single grave * single-handed * single-handedly * single-hearted * singlehood * single-horse * single-issue * single leaf * single-line * single knot * single malt * single market * single-minded * single money * single mother * singleness * single-o * single option * single parent * single-phase * single-phasing * singleplayer * single-ply roof * single pneumonia * single-point * single-point urban interchange * single point of failure * single precision * single prop * single quote * singler * single scull * single-sex * single shell * single shot * single-shot * single sourcing * single-space * single-spaced * single-spacing * single standard * single star system * singlestick * single stitch * single supplement * singlet * single tax * singleton * single track * single union agreement * single-valued * single-wide * single-wordNoun
(en noun)- The Offspring released four singles from their most recent album.
- He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
- I don't have any singles , so you'll have to make change.
Antonyms
* album * (one who is not married) marriedDerived terms
* cassingle * lead single * singles bar * singles charts * split single * CD singleSee also
* baseball * cricketVerb
(singl)- 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.
- dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark
- Pedro singled in the bottom of the eighth inning, which, if converted to a run, would put the team back into contention.
- Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.
- 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.
- an agent singling itself from consorts
- men commendable when they are singled