singularity

noun singularities

1. countable, uncountable 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.
2. countable, uncountable 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 chid for my singularity.
3. countable, uncountable A point where all parallel lines meet.
4. countable, uncountable A point where a measured variable reaches unmeasurable or infinite value.
5. countable, uncountable The value or range of values of a function for which a derivative does not exist.
6. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable 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 neither light nor any other signal could reach him from the singularity.

   Similar: spacetime singularity

7. abbreviation, capitalized, countable, ellipsis, sometimes, uncountable 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 which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.

   Similar: technological singularity, Kurzweil singularity, Singularity

8. countable, obsolete, uncountable Anything singular, rare, or curious. Your Gallerie / Haue vve paſs'd through, not vvithout much content / In many ſingularities; […]
9. countable, obsolete, uncountable 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 this name of singularity."
10. countable, uncountable 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 confin'd, and dies in singularity; but marriage, like the useful bee, builds a ho

Similar: centrohub, monosemy

proper noun

1. The technological singularity. The notion of the Singularity is predicated on Moore's Law, the 1965 observation by the Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, that the number of transistors that can be etched onto a sliver of silicon doubles at roughly two year intervals.