Other forms: singles
Single means one and no more. A single sock left in the drawer, a single light on in the whole street, not a single word all evening.
About people it means not married and not in a relationship, and a single parent is one raising children alone. A single room and a single bed are built for one person. In Britain a single is a one-way ticket — a single to Leeds, please — where an American asks for one-way. In music a single is one song released on its own, outside any album. And in every single day or every single time, single is adding nothing but force.
1adjectivesoleOnly one; one and no more.~51%
“There was a single chair in the middle of the empty room.”
2adjectivesingleNot married and not in a romantic relationship.~2%
“She has been single since the divorce and likes it.”
synonyms: unattached, unmarried
3adjectiveintendedIntended for one person to use.~2%
“He booked a single room with a view of the car park.”
4nounsongA song released on its own rather than as part of an album.~43%
“Their first single sold badly and the second went to number one.”
5nounticketIn British English, a ticket for a journey in one direction only.~2%
“A single to Manchester, please.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 22 sentences found in the wild and placed 22 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Single came through Middle English and Old French sengle from Latin singulus, a small-scale form of a word meaning one, which traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root *sem-, one. Latin simplex, the ancestor of simple, is built on the same root, so single and simple are relatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*sem- — one
Latin
singulus
Old French
sengle
Middle English
single
English, today
single
From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA