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unique. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
unique, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
unique in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from French unique. Piecewise doublet of any.
Pronunciation
Adjective
unique (comparative uniquer or more unique, superlative uniquest or most unique)
- (not comparable) Being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.
- Synonyms: one of a kind, sui generis, singular
Every person has a unique life, therefore every person has a unique journey.
1920, Robert W. Lawson, Relativity: The Special and General Theory, translation of original by Albert Einstein:Perhaps the reader will wonder why we have placed our " beings " on a sphere rather than on another closed surface. But this choice has its justification in the fact that, of all closed surfaces, the sphere is unique in possessing the property that all points on it are equivalent.
1941, Allen v. Walt Disney:3. Both were written and published with the same unique chorus structure;
4. Both compositions were written and published with the same unique harmonic structure;
1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:‘ […] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’
1978, Jimmy Carter, Proclamation 4611:Admiralty Island contains unique resources of scientific interest which need protection to assure continued opportunities for study.
1998, Paul M. Edwards, The Korean War: An Annotated Bibliography, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 114:A very interesting history of United Nations at war in Korea, done in an unique question and answer style.
- Of a feature, such that only one holder has it.
- Particular, characteristic.
1999, Harry J. Cargas, Problems Unique to the Holocaust:
- (proscribed) Of a rare quality, unusual.
1950, J.D. Salinger, For Esmé—With Love and Squalor:And as I look back, it seems to me that we were fairly unique, the sixty of us, in that there wasn’t one good mixer in the bunch.
Usage notes
- The comparative and superlative forms uniquer or more unique and uniquest or most unique, as well as the use of unique with modifiers as in fairly unique and very unique, are criticised with the reasoning that either something is unique or it is not. These modified senses of “unique”, however, have been in use since at least as far back as the 18th century, with “unique” taking its common secondary sense of “uncommon, unusual, remarkable”.
Derived terms
Translations
one of a kind
- Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
- Afrikaans: uniek (af)
- Arabic: فَرِيد (ar) (farīd), فَذّ (faḏḏ), وَحِيد (waḥīd)
- Armenian: եզակի (hy) (ezaki), ունիկալ (hy) (unikal)
- Avar: цӏакъаб (cʼaqxʼab)
- Azerbaijani: unikal
- Belarusian: уніка́льны (unikálʹny), адзі́ны (adzíny), непаўто́рны (njepaŭtórny)
- Bulgarian: уника́лен (bg) (unikálen), неповтори́м (bg) (nepovtorím), еди́нствен (bg) (edínstven)
- Catalan: únic (ca)
- Chechen: please add this translation if you can
- Chinese:
- Hokkien: 特異 / 特异 (ti̍k-ī)
- Mandarin: 獨一無二 / 独一无二 (zh) (dúyīwú'èr), 唯一 (zh) (wéiyī), 特異 / 特异 (zh) (tèyì)
- Czech: jedinečný (cs), unikátní (cs)
- Danish: unik, enestående
- Dutch: uniek (nl)
- Esperanto: unika, ununura
- Estonian: unikaalne, ainulaadne
- Finnish: ainutlaatuinen (fi)
- French: unique (fr)
- Galician: único (gl) m
- Georgian: უნიკალური (uniḳaluri), განუმეორებელი (ganumeorebeli), ერთადერთი (ertaderti), უბადლო (ubadlo), შეუდარებელი (šeudarebeli), უბადლო (ubadlo)
- German: einzigartig (de), unikal (de), einzig (de)
- Greek: μοναδικός (el) (monadikós)
- Ancient: μοναχός (monakhós)
- Hindi: अद्वितीय (hi) (advitīya)
- Hungarian: egyedi (hu), egyedülálló (hu)
- Ido: unika (io)
- Indonesian: unik (id)
- Irish: uathúil
- Italian: unico (it), peculiare (it), speciale (it)
- Japanese: 唯一 (ja) (yuiitsu), 唯一無二 (ja) (yuiitsumuni), (+ -な -na) ユニーク (ja) (yunīku)
- Kazakh: бірегей (bıregei)
- Khmer: ពិសេស (km) (pisaeh)
- Korean: 유일무이(唯一無二)하다 (yuilmu'ihada), 유일(唯一)하다 (ko) (yuilhada), 독특(獨特)하다 (ko) (dokteukhada), (odd) 희한(稀罕)하다 (ko) (huihanhada)
- Kyrgyz: сейрек (ky) (seyrek)
- Latin: ūnicus (la)
- Macedonian: уника́тен (unikáten), е́динствен (édinstven), исклучи́телен (isklučítelen)
- Maori: ahurei, tūhāhā
- Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: unik
- Old English: ænlic
- Ossetian: иунӕт (iwnæt)
- Persian: یکتا (yektâ), بیمانند (bi-mânand) (bookish), منحصربفرد (fa) (monhaserbefard)
- Polish: unikalny (pl), niepowtarzalny (pl), unikatowy (pl), wyjątkowy (pl)
- Portuguese: único (pt)
- Romanian: unic (ro)
- Russian: уника́льный (ru) (unikálʹnyj), исключи́тельный (ru) (isključítelʹnyj), еди́нственный (ru) (jedínstvennyj), неповтори́мый (ru) (nepovtorímyj)
- Scottish Gaelic: àraidh, air leth
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: једѝнствен
- Roman: jedìnstven (sh)
- Sindhi: منفرد (mufarid)
- Slovak: jedinečný, unikátny (sk)
- Slovene: edinstven
- Spanish: único (es), señero (es)
- Swedish: unik (sv), enastående (sv)
- Tajik: беҳамто (tg) (behamto), ягона (tg) (yagona), беназир (tg) (benazir), нодир (nodir)
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: benzersiz (tr), eşsiz (tr), özgün (tr), ünik (tr)
- Tuvan: please add this translation if you can
- Ukrainian: уніка́льний (unikálʹnyj), єди́ний (jedýnyj), неповто́рний (nepovtórnyj)
- Uzbek: noyob (uz), nodir (uz)
- Vietnamese: duy nhất (vi), độc nhất (vi), độc nhất vô nhị (vi), có một không hai (vi)
- Welsh: unigryw (cy)
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Noun
unique (plural uniques)
- A thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled; one of a kind.
2020, John Harris, Exploring Roguelike Games:[…] uniques of the game, Sauron and Morgoth, are found on levels 99 and 100 of the dungeon respectively, […]
Translations
Further reading
- “unique”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “unique”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “unique” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin ūnicus.
Pronunciation
Adjective
unique (plural uniques)
- unique
- only
Derived terms
Descendants
Further reading