We study operators on a singular manifold, here of conical or edge type, and develop a new general approach of representing asymptotics of solutions to elliptic equations close to the singularities. The idea is to construct so-called asymptotic parametrices with flat left-over terms. Our structures are motivated by models of particle physics with singular potentials that contribute embedded singularities in R N of higher order, according to the number of particles.2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 35S35; Secondary 35J70. Key words and phrases. cone and edge pseudo-differential operators, ellipticity of edgedegenerate operators, meromorphic operator-valued symbols, asymptotics of solutions.