singularly

English

Etymology

From Middle English singulerly; equivalent to singular +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪŋɡjəlɚli/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪŋɡjʊləli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sin‧gu‧lar‧ly

Adverb

singularly (comparative more singularly, superlative most singularly)

1. Strangely; oddly.

   He behaved most singularly when we met him last night.

2. Extremely; remarkably.
   • 1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "There were scraps of verse. I do not profess to be a judge of such things, but they appeared to me to be singularly wanting in merit."

3. In the singular number; in terms of a single thing.
4. Solely; only; uniquely.
   • 2025 June 26, Kasra Naji, “When Iran's supreme leader emerges from hiding he will find a very different nation”, in BBC‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 August 2026:

     A vast number of Iranians will singularly hold Ayatollah Khamenei, who first became leader in 1989, responsible for setting Iran on a collision course with Israel and the US that ultimately brought considerable ruin to his country and people.

Translations

solely; only; uniquely

• Esperanto: aparte

References

• “singularly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.