Hidden Single

A hidden single occurs on a sudoku board when there is only one cell left in a row, column, or box where a specific number can occur. Sometimes they are very easy to find, and sometimes they are not as obvious.

orange cell is a hidden single
The 1s in the surrounding boxes mean that the only cell in the middle box that can be 1 is the one highlighted in orange.

When using pencil marks, you can visually scan through a row, column, or box. When you see that a number only occurs once, that means you have a hidden single.

hidden single with pencil marks
If you look very carefully at the pencil marks in the upper right box, you will see there is a hidden single.

 

hidden single with pencil marks highlighted
The highlighted cell is the only one in the box that can be the number 2.