English Online Dictionary. What means unique? What does unique mean?
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French unique. Piecewise doublet of any.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /juːˈniːk/, /jəˈniːk/
- Rhymes: -iːk
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
- Of a feature, such that only one holder has it.
- Particular, characteristic.
- (proscribed) Of a rare quality, unusual.
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
Related terms
- unicity
- one-of-a-kind
- inimitable
Translations
Noun
unique (plural uniques)
- A thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled; one of a kind.
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
- IPA(key): /y.nik/
- Rhymes: -ik
Adjective
unique (plural uniques)
- unique
- only
Derived terms
Related terms
- un
Descendants
- → Danish: unik
- → Dutch: uniek
- → Indonesian: unik
- → English: unique
- → Norwegian Bokmål: unik
- → Norwegian Nynorsk: unik
- → Swedish: unik
- → Turkish: ünik
Further reading
- “unique”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.