Search the Dictionary

A combination of three vowel sounds in a single syllable, forming a simple or compound sound; also, a union of three vowel characters, representing together a single sound; a trigraph; as, eye, -ieu in adieu, -eau in beau, are examples of triphthongs.

or pertaining to a triphthong; consisting of three vowel sounds pronounced together in a single syllable.

In a single-acting engine, an elongated hollow piston, open at the end, in which the end of the connecting rod is pivoted. The piston rod, crosshead and stuffing box are thus dispensed with.

o revolve as if upon a point of support; to hinge; to depend; as, the decision turns on a single fact. Conditions of peace certainly turn upon events of war. Swift.

To unfold, or render single.

Having only one axis; developing along a single line or plane; -- opposed to multiaxial.

Having, or consisting of, a single chamber; -- said of a legislative assembly. [R.] F. Lieber.

Having, or consisting of, but a single cell; as, a unicellular organism.

Having a single center of growth. Unicentral development, that form of development which takes place primarily around a single central point, as in the lowest of unicellular organisms.

Having but a single horn; -- said of certain insects. "Unicornous beetles." Sir T. Browne.

Having a single rib or strong nerve running upward from the base; -- said of a leaf.

That can be passed over in a single course; -- said of a curve when the coördinates of the point on the curve can be expressed as rational algebraic functions of a single parameter th.

Consisting of a single lobe.

Possessed of but a single nucleus; as, a uninucleated cell.

Being without a like or equal; unmatched; unequaled; unparalleled; single in kind or excellence; sole. -- U*nique"ly, adv. -- U*nique"ness, n.

A single, unvaried. [R.] Pope. In unison, in agreement; agreeing in tone; in concord.

A single thing or person.

A shell consisting of one valve only; a mollusk whose shell is composed of a single piece, as the snails and conchs.

she, the cause of your unrest! Chaucer. Can calm despair and wild unrest Be tenants of a single breast Tennyson.

A genus of marine green algæ, in which the whole frond consists of a single oval or cylindrical cell, often an inch in length.