Meaning

The state of being singular, distinct, peculiar, uncommon or unusual..

Definitions by Sense

1. The state of being singular, distinct, peculiar, uncommon or unusual.
2. An unusual action or behaviour.
3. A point where all parallel lines meet.
4. A point where a measured variable reaches unmeasurable or infinite value.
5. (mathematics) The value or range of values of a function for which a derivative does not exist.
6. (physics) Ellipsis of gravitational singularity (“a point or region in spacetime in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density; associated with black holes”).
7. (sometimes capitalized) Ellipsis of technological singularity (“a hypothetical turning point in the future, the culmination of ever-accelerating technological progress, when human history as we have known it ends, and a strange new era begins. For some writers, the catalyst is superhuman machine intelligence”).
8. (obsolete) Anything singular, rare, or curious.

Example Sentences

Pliny addeth this ſingularity to the Indian ſoil, that it is without weeds, that the second year the very falling down of the seeds yieldeth corn.

I took notice of this little figure for the singularity of the instrument.

A sub-cultural style or artifact, when adopted by the mainstream, loses its singularity. Once bell-bottoms became fashionable they were no longer a "gay style."

When about 16 years of age I happened to meet with a book, written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it. […] My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chid for my singularity.

"Do you know," said she to Guido one morning, when, after asking her to sing, the Englishman had left the room in the very middle of her song, "that I have taken a fancy into my head, which quite accounts for Mr. Arden's singularities: it is, that I am like some one whom he loved and lost in early youth; and though the loss is dreadful, the love is yet pleasant to remember."

At this singularity the laws of science and our ability to predict the future would break down. However, any observer who remained outside the black hole would not be affected by this failure of predictability, because neither light nor any other signal could reach him from the singularity.

Consequently the interior of a black hole is empty, with a singularity at the centre.

One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.

Word Forms

• singularities

Synonyms for singularity

Related Words

When Should You Use Singularity?

Use singularity when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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