Adjective

(en adjective)

Being only one of a larger population.

A singular experiment cannot be regarded as scientific proof of the existence of a phenomenon.

Being the only one of the kind; unique.

She has a singular personality.

* Addison

These busts of the emperors and empresses are all very scarce, and some of them almost singular in their kind.

* Chaucer

And God forbid that all a company / Should rue a singular man's folly.

(Francis Bacon)

Distinguished by superiority; eminent; extraordinary; exceptional.

a man of singular gravity or attainments

Out of the ordinary; curious.

It was very singular ; I don't know why he did it.

* Denham

So singular a sadness / Must have a cause as strange as the effect.

* Milton

His zeal / None seconded, as out of season judged, / Or singular and rash.

(grammar) Referring to only one thing or person.

(linear algebra, of matrix) Having no inverse.

(linear algebra, of transformation) Having the property that the matrix of coefficients of the new variables has a determinant equal to zero.

(set theory, of a cardinal number) Not equal to its own .

(legal) Each; individual.

to convey several parcels of land, all and singular

(obsolete) Engaged in by only one on a side; single.

* Holinshed

to try the matter thus together in a singular combat

Adjective

(en adjective)

Known to one.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}

Acquainted.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=20 citation , passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.}}

Intimate or friendly.

* Shakespeare

Be thou familiar , but by no means vulgar.

Inappropriately intimate or friendly.

(Camden)

Of or pertaining to a family; familial.

* Byron

familiar feuds