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Ideal vs Unique - What's the difference?

ideal | unique |

As adjectives the difference between ideal and unique

is that ideal is optimal; being the best possibility while unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

As nouns the difference between ideal and unique

is that ideal is (a perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc.)A perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc., or a standard of excellence to aim at while unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

As a proper noun Ideal

is a city in Georgia, USA.

ideal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Optimal; being the best possibility.
  • Perfect, flawless, having no defects.
  • * Rambler
    • There will always be a wide interval between practical and ideal excellence.
  • Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea.
  • Existing only in the mind; conceptual, imaginary.
  • * 1796 , Matthew Lewis, The Monk , Folio Society 1985, p. 256:
    • The idea of ghosts is ridiculous in the extreme; and if you continue to be swayed by ideal terrors —
  • * 1818 , , [[s:Frankenstein/Chapter 4, Chapter 4],
    • Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
  • Teaching or relating to the doctrine of idealism.
    • the ideal theory or philosophy
  • (mathematics) Not actually present, but considered as present when limits at infinity are included.
    • ideal point
    An ideal triangle in the hyperbolic disk is one bounded by three geodesics that meet precisely on the circle.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Related terms

    * ideality * idealless * ideally * idealism * idealistic * idealize

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc., or a standard of excellence to aim at.
    • Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny -
  • (mathematics, order theory) A non-empty]] lower set (of a partially ordered set) which is [[closure, closed under binary suprema (a.k.a. joins).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_prime_ideal_theorem#Prime_ideal_theorems]
    • If (1) the empty set were called a "small" set, and (2) any subset of a "small" set were also a "small" set, and (3) the union of any pair of "small" sets were also a "small" set, then the set of all "small" sets would form an ideal .
  • (for example, algebra) A subring closed under multiplication by its containing ring.
    • Let \mathbb{Z} be the ring of integers and let 2\mathbb{Z} be its ideal of even integers. Then the quotient ring \mathbb{Z} / 2\mathbb{Z} is a Boolean ring.
    The product of two ideals \mathfrak{a} and \mathfrak{b} is an ideal \mathfrak{a b} which is a subset of the intersection of \mathfrak{a} and \mathfrak{b}. This should help to understand why maximal ideals' are prime ' ideals . Likewise, the union of \mathfrak{a} and \mathfrak{b} is a subset of \mathfrak{a + b}.

    Antonyms

    * (order theory) filter

    Derived terms

    * left ideal * right ideal * two-sided ideal * principal ideal

    External links

    * (wikipedia)

    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

    Related terms

    * unicity * one-of-a-kind * inimitable

    Noun

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

    External links

    * * * English autological terms English disputed terms ----