Meaning & use
single-piece
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Made or consisting of one whole part, with no joins or separate sections.
Grammar: Comes before the noun and has no comparative form: a single-piece frame, not a more single-piece frame.
Patterns
- single-piece something
- a single-piece design/unit/construction
The new kayak has a single-piece hull, so there is no seam that can leak.
They replaced the folding table with a single-piece top that feels much sturdier.
The lens is a single-piece unit and cannot be taken apart for cleaning.
adjectivebefore a noun
Formed as one continuous item rather than several items joined or sold together.
Grammar: Used before nouns such as garment, swimsuit, or casting to stress that there is only one part.
Patterns
- a single-piece garment/swimsuit
- single-piece casting
She prefers a single-piece swimsuit for swimming laps.
The factory produces a single-piece casting that saves hours of welding.
A single-piece garment like this leaves no gap at the waist.
Common combinations
- single-piece construction
- Single-piece construction makes the chair lighter but harder to repair.
- single-piece design
- The single-piece design means fewer screws and less rattling.
- single-piece unit
- The pump is sold as a single-piece unit.
- a single-piece garment
- The dancers wore a single-piece garment in dark blue.
- single-piece casting
- Engineers chose a single-piece casting to avoid weak joints.
Synonyms and how they differ
- one-piece
- The usual everyday word for clothing and furniture; single-piece is more common in technical or manufacturing writing.
- seamless
- Focuses on having no visible joins or gaps, while single-piece focuses on being made of only one part.
- integral
- Means built in as a necessary part of something, not necessarily made as one physical piece.
Opposites
Word family
- one-piece adjective
- Made as a single item, especially of swimwear or a suit.
- piece noun
- A part or section of something larger.
Commonly confused: single-piece or one-piece? single-piece or single piece?
single-piece vs one-piece
One-piece is the standard spelling for swimsuits and similar clothing; single-piece is used more in technical descriptions of parts.
single-piece vs single piece
Written without a hyphen, single piece is a noun phrase meaning one item, as in It came in a single piece; the hyphenated form is the adjective.
Practice
Which sentence uses single-piece correctly?
Choose one answer.
Single-piece is an adjective that goes before a noun, so 'a single-piece hull' is correct. Option 2 wrongly treats it as a comparative, option 3 needs the noun phrase 'a single piece', and option 4 uses it as a plural noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “single-piece”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.