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Singular vs Singularly - What's the difference?

singular | singularly |

As a adjective singular

is being only one of a larger population.

As a noun singular

is (grammar) a form of a word that refers to only one person or thing.

As a adverb singularly is

in a singular manner.

singular

English

Alternative forms

* (abbreviation):

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

    Synonyms

    * (being only one) individual * (being the only one of a kind) unique * (distinguished by superiority) exceptional, extraordinary, remarkable * (being out of the ordinary) curious, eccentric, funny, odd, peculiar, strange, rum, rummy, unusual * non-invertible

    Antonyms

    * plural * invertible, non-singular

    Derived terms

    * singularity * singularize

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (grammar) A form of a word that refers to only one person or thing.

    • Antonyms

    * plural

    External links

    * * *

    See also

    * * simplex * simple * single * singulus

    Anagrams

    * ----

    singularly

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • In a singular manner.
  • Strangely; oddly.
  • * 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
    • Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable. It struck me as singularly odd, that among the universal decay, this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousand years.

    References

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