only child vs single child

Both 'only child' and 'single child' are correct phrases, but 'only child' is the more commonly used and accepted term in English. It specifically refers to a person who has no siblings. 'Single child' can be used, but it may not be as widely recognized or preferred.

Last updated: March 30, 2024 • 946 views

This is a correct and commonly used term in English to refer to a person who has no siblings.

"only child"

Use 'only child' to describe a person who does not have any siblings. It is a widely recognized term in English.

Examples:

She is an only child, so she gets a lot of attention from her parents.
Growing up as an only child, he learned to be independent at a young age.

Show examples from the web [+]

I had always suffered being an only child.
You make me wish I were an only child.
Uco, Bangun's only child.
We moved to this country to give our only child, Mukesh, everything we never had.
Avery's an Upper West Side only child.
You should know, I'm used to being an only child.
We checked that out. Avery's an only child.
Suddenly I'm grateful to be an only child.
Life as an only child can get pretty lonely.
Apparently, Lucifer isn't an only child.
She was an only child who had run away from home.
Jerry's parents were both psychologists, and he was an only child.
I worry that Colin gets lonely sometimes, as an only child.
He went from being an only child to having two instant siblings.
Although an only child, I long had a brother.
Hayes was an only child, lived with his motheR.
As you know, I was the only child.
Tom Roberts is so boring, his brother is an only child.
An only child has to be everything.
I'm an only child, and both folks have passed.

Alternatives:

single child

This is a correct term, but it may not be as commonly used or recognized as 'only child' in English.

"single child"

While 'single child' can be used to refer to a person without siblings, 'only child' is the more preferred and widely understood term.

Show examples from the web [+]

Every single child in the independent school district of Dillon deserves better.
So every single child in the whole wide world is speaking English.
My research is too important to jeapordize for a single child.
Help a single child, you are a hero?
From then on, I was raised as a single child by a single mother.
Single child, parents deceased, unmarried, freelance... international...
Thebes, the city of corpses, where we found a single child, still alive.
What he's saying is you're not getting one solitary, single child.
every single child in Uruguay will have a laptop -
For just $20 each, we can give every single child a computer to call their own, loaded with educational software.
Yet again, every child has stopped, every single child in the world.
They have $30 million in that account, and they've never helped a single child.
Thirty-one countries in total are involved, and in the case of Uruguay, and by the middle of 2009, every single child in Uruguay will have a laptop - a little green laptop.
A single child: civil war
Every single child in the world.
I'm sorry V... Myresearchistooimportant to jeapordize for a single child.
But on the first day of school, not a single child showed up. Parents simply refused to send them.
As far as we can tell, at 8.40 this morning, every single child in the world stopped.
So, you would have the Galactica jump into a cylon hornet nest, risk everything for one solitary single child.
Someone who has seen the death of a single child now has nothing to lose.

Alternatives:

only child

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only child vs single child

"only child"

"single child"

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