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Singular vs Unprecedented - What's the difference?

singular | unprecedented | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between singular and unprecedented

is that singular is being only one of a larger population while unprecedented is never before seen or done, without precedent.

As a noun singular

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

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

    * ----

    unprecedented

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Never before seen or done, without precedent.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 19 , author=Kerry Brown , title=Kim Jong-il obituary , work=The Guardian citation , page= , passage=With the descent of the cold war, relations between the two countries (for this is, to all intents and purposes, what they became after the end of the war) were almost completely broken off, with whole families split for the ensuing decades, some for ever. This event and its after-effects, along with the war against the Japanese in the 1940s, was to cast a long shadow over the years ahead, and led to the creation of the wholly unprecedented worship of Kim Il-sung, and his elevation to almost God-like status. It was also to create the system in which his son was to occupy almost as impossibly elevated a position.}}