singularity

Noun

1. The state of being singular, distinct, peculiar, uncommon or unusual.
   • 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. - a. 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Marrow of Historie, Or, an Epitome of...
   • I took notice of this little figure for the singularity of the instrument. - 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
   • 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." - 1980 August 16, Michael Bronski, “Does Life Incriminate...
2. An unusual action or behaviour.
   • 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...
   • "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....
3. A point where all parallel lines meet.
4. A point where a measured variable reaches unmeasurable or infinite value.
5. The value or range of values of a function for which a derivative does not exist.
6. 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”).
   • 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...
   • Consequently the interior of a black hole is empty, with a singularity at the centre. - 1992, Jean-Pierre Luminet, Black Holes, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 135:

   Synonyms: spacetime singularity

7. 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”).
   • 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...
   • Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. […] I think it's fair to call this event a singularity ("the Singularity" for the...
   • [Vernor] Vinge was among those (along with, notably, Ray Kurzweil) to discuss the transformation of humans by technology, coming in a matter of decades, referred to as "the singularity." - [2011 January 5, Rob Walker,...

   Synonyms: technological singularity Kurzweil singularity Singularity

8. Anything singular, rare, or curious.
   • Your Gallerie / Haue vve paſs'd through, not vvithout much content / In many ſingularities; […] - c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
   • [N]either my Birth, my Education, nor the generall courſe of my life can promiſe no ſingularitie in any part of thoſe Actes they treate of: […] - 1613, G[ervase] M[arkham], “A Former Part, before the First Part: Being...
   • He was badgered in that witness-box for an hour. By a distracting repetition of cross-examination he was forced to confess that he had seen and spoken to a human biped in broad daylight, yet could not recollect one...
9. Possession of a particular or exclusive privilege, prerogative, or distinction.
   • St. Gregory, being himself a Bishop of Rome, and writing against the title of Universal Bishop, saith thus, "None of all my predecessors ever consented to use this ungodly title; no bishop of Rome ever took upon him...
   • Catholicism […] must be understood in opposition to the legal singularity of the Jewish nation. - 1659, John Pearson, An Exposition of the Creed, page 445:
10. Celibacy, singleness (as contrasted with marriage).
    • Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves Kingdomes, and fils Cities, and Churches, and Heaven itself: Celibate, like the flie in the heart of an apple, dwels in a perpetuall sweetnesse, but sits alone, and is...
    • Gradually the implication of biblical monotheism created an entailment of singularity and monogamy in sexual relations. - 1995, Joseph Monti, Arguing About Sex: The Rhetoric of Christian Sexual Morality, page 234:
    • Comparisons between marriage and celibacy are dubious. […] In this sense, marriage is the institution of sexual partnering whereas celibacy is an institution of sexual singularity. - 1998, Judith A. Merkle, “Two Faces...