one

1. the smallest whole number and the first cardinal number; unity

2. a numeral (1, I, i, etc.) representing this number

3. Music the numeral 1 used as the lower figure in a time signature to indicate that the beat is measured in semibreves

4. the one (in Neo-Platonic philosophy) the ultimate being

5. the Holy One or the One above God

6. the Evil One Satan; the devil

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

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References in classic literature

He tossed a dozen or so of them high in the air and caught them one by one as they came down, without missing any.

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As he went on I felt as if my soul were grappling with a palpable enemy; one by one the various keys were touched which formed the mechanism of my being; chord after chord was sounded, and soon my mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose.

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As Dolly glanced towards him, and thought of the pain he must have suffered, and the far-off places in which he had been wandering, and wondered who had been his nurse, and hoped that whoever it was, she had been as kind and gentle and considerate as she would have been, the tears came rising to her bright eyes, one by one, little by little, until she could keep them back no longer, and so before them all, wept bitterly.

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