Recent Examples on the Web The position will be a unique addition not just to IndyStar, but to Indiana’s news media landscape, and will be made possible through a partnership with Report for America.Īrika Herron, The Indianapolis Star, 9 Dec. Humans are unique among mammals in several respects. She's in the unique position of running for office against her husband. Even when the stars disperse, they retain their unique chemical tag … - Rodrigo Ibata et al., Scientific American, April 2007 As a dozen new books will testify, our nation is in the midst of a great barbecue renaissance, with each region proudly claiming its own unique style. Each cloud has a unique and homogeneous mix of chemical elements and isotopes, which its stellar progeny inherits.
Richard Horton, New York Review of Books, Most stars are not born in isolation but instead in groups of several thousand to tens of thousands, all of which emerge from the same parent cloud of gas. He professed a commitment to levels of competence and integrity that he expected society to respect and trust. He-and medicine was then very much a masculine endeavor-had a unique mastery of a special body of knowledge. Bob Berman, Astronomy, November 2007 A century ago a doctor was considered to be part of a social elite. Alan Shipnuck, Sports Illustrated, 23 June 2008 Space is a strange and unique item-you can't take it to a lab and analyze it like beef jerky. Open, but this victory was more visceral. Margaret McMillan, Dangerous Games, 2008 Wood's unique skill set was on display again at last week's U.S. Each historical event is a unique congeries of factors, people, or chronology. There are no clear blueprints to be discovered in history that can help us shape the future as we wish. When sense 1 or sense 2a is intended, unique is used without qualifying modifiers. In modern use both comparison and modification are widespread and standard but are confined to the extended senses 2b and 3. With popular use came a broadening of application beyond the original two meanings (here numbered senses 1 and 2a). Todd entered it as a foreign word in his edition (1818) of Johnson's Dictionary, characterizing it as "affected and useless." Around the middle of the 19th century it ceased to be considered foreign and came into considerable popular use. Unique dates back to the 17th century but was little used until the end of the 18th when, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was reacquired from French. Objections are based chiefly on the assumption that unique has but a single absolute sense, an assumption contradicted by information readily available in a dictionary. Many commentators have objected to the comparison or modification (as by somewhat or very) of unique, often asserting that a thing is either unique or it is not.
The eccentric eating habits of preschoolers erratic stresses a capricious and unpredictable wandering or deviating.Ī friend's suddenly erratic behavior odd applies to a departure from the regular or expected.Īn odd sense of humor quaint suggests an old-fashioned but pleasant oddness.Ī quaint fishing village outlandish applies to what is uncouth, bizarre, or barbaric.Ĭan something be very unique or somewhat unique?: Usage Guide The peculiar status of America's First Lady eccentric suggests a wide divergence from the usual or normal especially in behavior. strange stresses unfamiliarity and may apply to the foreign, the unnatural, the unaccountable.Ī journey filled with strange sights singular suggests individuality or puzzling strangeness.Ī singular feeling of impending disaster unique implies singularity and the fact of being without a known parallel.Ī career unique in the annals of science peculiar implies a marked distinctiveness. Strange, singular, unique, peculiar, eccentric, erratic, odd, quaint, outlandish mean departing from what is ordinary, usual, or to be expected.