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Custom vs Unique - What's the difference?

custom | unique |

As nouns the difference between custom and unique

is that custom is frequent repetition of the same behavior; way of behavior common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; usage; method of doing, living or behaving while unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

As adjectives the difference between custom and unique

is that custom is made in a different way from usual, specially to fit one's needs while unique is (not comparable) being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

As a verb custom

is (obsolete|transitive) to make familiar; to accustom.

custom

English

(Webster 1913)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Frequent repetition of the same behavior; way of behavior common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; usage; method of doing, living or behaving.
  • :* And teach customs which are not lawful. Acts xvi. 21 .
  • :* Moved beyond his custom , Gama said. .
  • :* A custom More honored in the breach than the observance. Shakespeare
  • Habitual buying of goods; practice of frequenting, as a shop, manufactory, etc., for making purchases or giving orders; business support.
  • * Let him have your custom , but not your votes. - .
  • (legal) Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription.
  • * Usage is a fact. Custom' is a law. There can be no '''custom''' without usage, though there may be usage without '''custom . ''Wharton .
  • (obsolete) Familiar acquaintance; familiarity.
  • * Age can not wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Shakespeare
  • The customary toll, tax, or tribute.
  • * Render, therefore, to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom' to whom '''custom . ''Rom. xiii. 7 .
  • Created under particular specifications, specialized, unique, custom-made
  • Synonyms

    * fashion * habit * wone * practice * usage * wont * See also:

    Derived terms

    * custom made

    Adjective

    (-)
  • made in a different way from usual, specially to fit one's needs
  • My feet are as big as powerboats, so I need custom shoes.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To make familiar; to accustom.
  • (Gray)
  • (obsolete) To supply with customers.
  • (Francis Bacon)
  • (obsolete) To pay the customs of.
  • (obsolete) To have a custom.
  • :* On a bridge he custometh to fight. .
  • 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.