different between unique vs curious
unique
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French unique.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ju??ni?k/
- Rhymes: -i?k
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 grammatically proscribed, with the reasoning that either something is unique or it is not.
Derived terms
- uniquely
- uniqueness
- uniquity
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.
- a. 1859, Thomas De Quincey, Language
- The phoenix, the unique of birds.
- a. 1859, Thomas De Quincey, Language
Translations
Further reading
- unique in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- unique in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- “unique” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin ?nicus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /y.nik/
Adjective
unique (plural uniques)
- unique
- only
Derived terms
Related terms
- un
Descendants
- ? Danish: unik
- ? Dutch: uniek
- ? Norwegian Bokmål: unik
- ? Norwegian Nynorsk: unik
- ? Swedish: unik
- ? Turkish: ünik
Further reading
- “unique” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
unique From the web:
- what unique means
- what uniquely identifies a row in a table
- what unique ability was originated with cyanobacteria
- what unique situation is the lady of shalott in
- what uniquely identifies an officer's uniform
- what unique about me
- what unique or single effect
- what unique fear do martians
curious
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English curious (“careful, meticulous; ingenious, skilful; expert, learned; concerned about (something); eager; curious, inquisitive; prying; carefully or skilfully made; exquisite, fine; sophisticated; recondite; magic or occult; absorbing, painstaking”) [and other forms], from Old French curios, curius (modern French curieux (“curious, inquisitive; interesting, quaint, unusual”)), and its etymon Latin c?ri?sus (“careful; complicated, elaborate; careworn; curious, inquisitive; meddlesome, prying”), from c?ra (“care, concern; anxiety; sorrow; attention; administration, management; command, office; guardianship”) (from Proto-Indo-European *k?eys- (“to heed”)) + -?sus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is cognate with Italian curioso (“curious, inquisitive”), Occitan curios, Portuguese curioso (“curious, inquisitive; odd, out of the ordinary”), Spanish curioso (“curious, inquisitive; interesting; odd, strange; quaint”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?kj??.?i.?s/, /?kj??-/
- (General American) IPA(key): /?kj?.?i.?s/, /?kj?.i.?s/
- Rhymes: -???i?s
- Hyphenation: cu?ri?ous
Adjective
curious (comparative more curious or curiouser, superlative most curious or curiousest)
- Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.
- Synonyms: enquiring, inquiring; (obsolete) exquisitive; investigative; (rare) peery
- Antonyms: incurious, noncurious, uncurious
- Caused by curiosity.
- Leading one to ask questions about; somewhat odd, out of the ordinary, or unusual.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:strange
- Antonym: uncurious
- (obsolete) Careful, fastidious, particular; (specifically) demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.
- (obsolete) Carefully or artfully constructed; made with great elegance or skill.
Usage notes
The comparative and superlative forms curiouser and curiousest are regarded as informal or nonstandard.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Etymology 2
curi(um) +? -ous
Adjective
curious (not comparable)
- (chemistry, rare) Containing or pertaining to trivalent curium.
References
Further reading
- curiosity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- curious (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
curious From the web:
- what curious mean
- what curious george
- what curious george character are you
- what curious toddlers do crossword
- what curious episode occurs in the study
- what curious episode occurs in the study of the clergyman
- what curious episode 1 in the study
- what curious episode
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