We performed extensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of single-wavelength lidar signals from a plane-parallel homogeneous layer of atmospheric particles and developed an empirical model to account for the multiple scattering in the lidar signals. The simulations have taken into consideration four types of lidar configurations (the ground based, the airborne, the CALIOP, and the ATLID) and four types of particles (coarse aerosol, water cloud, jet-stream cirrus, and cirrus). Most of the simulations were performed with a spatial resolution 20 m and particle extinction coefficients εp between 0.06 and 1.0 km−1. The resolution was 5 m for high values of εp (up to 10.0 km−1). The majority of simulations for ground-based and airborne lidars were performed at two values of the receiver field of view (RFOV): 0.25 and 1.0 mrad. The effect of the width of the RFOV was studied for values up to 50 mrad. The proposed empirical model is a function that has only three free parameters and approximates the multiple-scattering relative contribution to lidar signals. It is demonstrated that the empirical model has very good quality of MC data fitting for all considered cases. Special attention was given to the usual operational conditions, i.e. low distances to a layer of partices, small optical depths, and quite narrow receiver fields of view. It is demonstrated that multiple-scattering effects cannot be neglected when the distance to a layer of particles is about 8 km or higher, and the full RFOV is 1.0 mrad. As for the full RFOV of 0.25 mrad, the single-scattering approximation is acceptable; i.e. the multiple-scattering contribution to the lidar signal is lower than 5 % for aerosols (εp≲1.0 km−1), water clouds (εp≲0.5 km−1), and cirrus clouds (εp≤0.1 km−1). When the distance to a layer of particles is 1 km, the single-scattering approximation is acceptable for aerosols and water clouds (εp≲1.0 km−1, both RFOV = 0.25 and RFOV = 1 mrad). As for cirrus clouds, the effect of multiple scattering cannot be neglected even at such low distances when εp≳0.5 km−1.