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Ancient vs Unique - What's the difference?

ancient | unique |

As adjectives the difference between ancient and unique

is that ancient is having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age; very old while unique is (not comparable) being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

As nouns the difference between ancient and unique

is that ancient is a person who is very old while unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

ancient

Alternative forms

* anchient, antient, aunchient, auncient, auntient, awncient, awntient (obsolete)

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age; very old.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. […]’}}
  • Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black), title=Internal Combustion
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
  • (label) Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.
  • (obsolete) Experienced; versed.
  • * Berners
  • Though [he] was the youngest brother, yet he was the most ancient in the business of the realm.
  • (obsolete) Former; sometime.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • They mourned their ancient leader lost.

    Antonyms

    * modern

    Derived terms

    * Ancient Egypt * Ancient Greece * ancient lights * Ancient Macedonian * ancient pyramid * Ancient Rome * ancientry

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person who is very old.
  • A person who lived in ancient times.
  • (heraldry, archaic) A flag, banner, standard or ensign.
  • * 1719 ,
  • I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests..
  • (UK, legal) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.
  • (obsolete) A senior; an elder; a predecessor.
  • * Hooker
  • Junius and Andronicus were his ancients .

    References

    * * * *

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    unique

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (not comparable) Being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.
  • *
  • *
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=3 citation , passage=‘[…] 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—’}}
  • *
  • *
  • Of a feature, such that only one holder has it.
  • Particular, characteristic.
  • * '>citation
  • (proscribed) Of a rare quality, unusual.
  • * {{quote-book, passage=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.
  • , title=For Esmé—With Love and Squalor , author=J.D. Salinger , year=1950}}

    Usage notes

    The comparative and superlative forms more unique'' and ''most unique'', as well as the use of ''unique'' with modifiers as in ''fairly unique'' and ''very unique , are sometimes proscribed, with the reasoning that either something is unique or it is not.

    Synonyms

    (checksyns) * one of a kind * sui generis * singular

    Derived terms

    * uniqueness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.
  • * De Quincey
  • The phoenix, the unique of birds.