unique meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

unique

adj

/juːˈniːk/ · /jəˈ-/

Etymology Borrowed from French unique, from Latin unicus.

Being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

Every person has a unique life, therefore every person has a unique journey.
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.1920, Robert W. Lawson, Relativity: The Special and General Theory, translation of original by Albert Einstein:

4 more examples

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;1941, Allen v. Walt Disney:
‘[…] 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—’1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Admiralty Island contains unique resources of scientific interest which need protection to assure continued opportunities for study.1978, Jimmy Carter, Proclamation 4611:
A very interesting history of United Nations at war in Korea, done in an^([sic]) unique question and answer style.1998, Paul M. Edwards, The Korean War: An Annotated Bibliography, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 114:

Of a feature, such that only one holder has it.

Particular, characteristic.

Often, Proscribed Rare or unusual.

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.1950, J.D. Salinger, For Esmé—With Love and Squalor:

Synonyms: alone, azygous, incomparable, matchless, nonpareil, only, peerless, singular, sui generis, unequaled, unique, unparalleled, unmatched, unrivalled
Antonyms: common, normal
Derived terms: biunique, nonunique, non-unique, uniq fruit, unique factorization domain, unique factorization ring, unique-headed bug, unique identification number, unique identifier, unique key, uniquel, uniquely, uniqueness, uniquification, uniquify, uniquity, universally unique identifier, ununique
Related terms: unicity, one-of-a-kind, inimitable, first and last, ideal, nonesuch, one of a kind, one-off, paragon, snowflake, sole, solitary, strange, uniqueness
Hypernyms: rare
Hyponyms: newfangled, novel, original, unprecedented

noun

Etymology Borrowed from French unique, from Latin unicus.

A thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled; one of a kind.

The phoenix, the unique of birds.a. 1859, Thomas De Quincey, Language:
[…] uniques of the game, Sauron and Morgoth, are found on levels 99 and 100 of the dungeon respectively, […]2020, John Harris, Exploring Roguelike Games: