singular
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "singular", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "singular" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "singular" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
singular is anEnglishadj. It means: Being only one of a larger population; single, individual. Pronounced /ˈsɪŋ.ɡjə.lɚ/. Often confused with singularly.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | singular |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈsɪŋ.ɡjə.lɚ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #10,610 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for singular is 8 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɪŋ.ɡjə.lɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,610 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for singular, with forms such as "isngular", "signular", and "singgular". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "singularly", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English singuler, from Old French, from Latin singulāris (“alone of its kind”), from Latin singulus (“single”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is singular, spelled S-I-N-G-U-L-A-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Being only one of a larger population; single, individual.
- 2Being the only one of the kind; unique.
- 3Distinguished by superiority: peerless, unmatched, eminent, exceptional, extraordinary.
- 4Out of the ordinary; curious.
- 5Referring to only one thing or person.
- 6Having no inverse.
- 7Having the property that the matrix of coefficients of the new variables has a determinant equal to zero.
- 8Not equal to its own cofinality.
- 9Each; individual.
- 10Engaged in by only one on a side; single.
Etymology
From Middle English singuler, from Old French, from Latin singulāris (“alone of its kind”), from Latin singulus (“single”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: isngular,signular,singgular,singluar,singualr,singularr,singullar,singulra,sinngular,sinuglar,snigular,ssingular
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for singular
Misspelling Variants of "singular"
Frequency rank: #10,610 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: