Unique vs Authentic - What's the difference?
unique | authentic |
(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 *
*
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}}
A thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.
* De Quincey
Of the same origin as claimed; genuine.
Conforming to reality and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief.
(music, of a Gregorian mode) Having the final as the lowest note of the mode.
(obsolete) authoritative
As adjectives the difference between unique and authentic
is that unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched while authentic is of the same origin as claimed; genuine.As a noun unique
is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.unique
English
Adjective
(en adjective)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—’}}
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 * singularDerived terms
* uniquenessNoun
(en noun)- The phoenix, the unique of birds.
authentic
English
Alternative forms
* authentical, authentick, authenticke, authentique (all archaic)Adjective
(en adjective)- The experts confirmed it was an authentic signature.
- The report was completely authentic .
- an authentic''' writer; an '''authentic''' portrait; '''authentic information
- (Milton)