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Pair vs Single - What's the difference?

pair | single |

As nouns the difference between pair and single

is that pair is two similar or identical things taken together; often followed by of while single is single (45rpm vinyl record).

As a verb pair

is to group into sets of two or pair can be (obsolete) to impair.

pair

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) paire, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en-noun)
  • Two similar or identical things taken together; often followed by of.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much.}}
  • Two people in a relationship, partnership (especially sexual) or friendship.
  • Used with binary nouns (often in the plural to indicate multiple instances, since such nouns are plurale tantum)
  • A couple of working animals attached to work together, as by a yoke.
  • (cards) A poker hand that contains of two cards of identical rank, which cannot also count as a better hand.
  • (cricket) A score of zero runs (a duck) in both innings of a two-innings match
  • (baseball, informal) A double play, two outs recorded in one play
  • (baseball, informal) A doubleheader, two games played on the same day between the same teams
  • (slang) A pair of breasts
  • (Australia, politics) The exclusion of one member of a parliamentary party from a vote, if a member of the other party is absent for important personal reasons.
  • Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time.
  • There were two pairs on the final vote.
  • (archaic) A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set.
  • * Charles Dickens
  • plunging myself into poverty and shabbiness and love in one room up three pair of stairs
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • Two crowns in my pocket, two pair of cards.
  • (kinematics) In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion; named in accordance with the motion it permits, as in turning pair'', ''sliding pair'', ''twisting pair .
  • Synonyms
    * two objects in a group: duo, dyad, couple, brace, twosome, duplet * (pair of breasts) See also
    Derived terms
    * on a pair * grow a pair * in pairs * king pair * pair-horse * pair-oar(ed) * pair production * pair skating * royal pair * strap on a pair

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To group into sets of two.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Glossy jet is paired with shining white.
    The wedding guests were paired boy/girl and groom's party/bride's party.
  • To bring two (animals, notably dogs) together for mating.
  • (politics, slang) To engage (oneself) with another of opposite opinions not to vote on a particular question or class of questions.
  • To suit; to fit, as a counterpart.
  • * Rowe
  • My heart was made to fit and pair with thine.
    (Webster 1913)
  • (computing) to form wireless connection between to devices
  • *{{quote-web
  • , date = yyyy-mm-dd , author =Microsoft , title = How-to: Keyboards , site = http://www.microsoft.com , url = http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/help/support/how-to/keyboard/bluetooth , accessdate = 2015-02-21 }}
    If your computer has a built-in, non-Microsoft transceiver, you can pair the device directly to the computer by using your computer’s Bluetooth software configuration program but without using the Microsoft Bluetooth transceiver.
    Derived terms
    * pairing * pair off * pair up

    Etymology 2

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To impair.
  • (Spenser)

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    single

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Not accompanied by anything else; one in number.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Fenella Saunders
  • , title= 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.}}
  • Not divided in parts.
  • Designed for the use of only one.
  • Performed by one person, or one on each side.
  • a single combat
  • * Milton
  • These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, / Who now defies thee thrice to single fight.
  • Not married, and also not dating.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
  • * Dryden
  • Single chose to live, and shunned to wed.
  • (botany) Having only one rank or row of petals.
  • (obsolete) Simple and honest; sincere, without deceit.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Luke XI:
  • 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?
  • * Shakespeare
  • I speak it with a single heart.
  • Uncompounded; pure; unmixed.
  • * I. Watts
  • Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound.
  • (obsolete) Simple; foolish; weak; silly.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • 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) unmarried

    Antonyms

    * (single) divorced, married, widowed

    Derived 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-word

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.
  • The Offspring released four singles from their most recent album.
  • One who is not married.
  • He went to the party, hoping to meet some friendly singles there.
  • (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.
  • I don't have any singles , so you'll have to make change.
  • (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.
  • Antonyms

    * album * (one who is not married) married

    Derived terms

    * cassingle * lead single * singles bar * singles charts * split single * CD single

    See also

    * baseball * cricket

    Verb

    (singl)
  • 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.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark
  • (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.
  • (agriculture) To thin out.
  • * 1913 ,
  • Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.
  • (of a horse) To take the irregular gait called singlefoot.
  • * W. S. Clark
  • 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.
  • To sequester; to withdraw; to retire.
  • * Hooker
  • an agent singling itself from consorts
  • To take alone, or one by one.
  • * Hooker
  • men commendable when they are singled

    Derived terms

    * single out

    See also

    (coefficient)

    References

    * *

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----