single-use

adjective

sin·​gle-use ˈsiŋ-gəl-ˈyüs 

variants or less commonly single use

: intended or designed to be used once and then discarded

single-use plastics

single-use paper products

Surgical masks are single-use face coverings that are designed to act as a barrier to sneezes or other potential exchanges of germs.

—Anandi Barker

Examples of single-use in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There are Mangrove restoration projects, an in-house sea cucumber conservation program, and not a single-use straw in sight. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Oct. 2026

About 16 flies played on a storage-area shelf with clean equipment, single-use gloves and napkins. — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 30 Oct. 2026

To Turner’s point about actual data, two state landfill audits, in which crews sorted and weighed real trash, put Californians’ 2023 single-use plastic use at about 3 million tons. — Susanne Rust follow, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026

Muse, Instinct and Claude Duet all handle payments through Stripe’s Link service, which can generate single-use virtual cards to keep card details hidden. — Marty Swant, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for single-use

• avenues
• barbecues
• cockatoos
• interviews
• kangaroos
• obliquus
• overshoes
• overuse
• overviews
• residues
• revenues
• tyrannus