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Same vs Unique - What's the difference?

same | unique |

As adjectives the difference between same and unique

is that same is not different or other; not another or others; not different as regards self; selfsame; identical while unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

As a pronoun same

is the identical thing, ditto.

As an adverb same

is together.

As a proper noun Same

is a district capital of Manufahi District in East Timor.

As a noun unique is

a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

same

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Adjective

(-)
  • Not different or other; not another or others; not different as regards self; selfsame; identical.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), Chapter=1 , passage=I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.}}
  • Similar, alike.
  • *
  • They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • Used to express the unity of an object or person which has various different descriptions or qualities.
  • A reply of confirmation of identity.
  • * ca. 1606 , (William Shakespeare), (King Lear) , Act V, scene III:
  • ''King Lear: This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
    Kent: The same . [http://www.rhymezone.com/r/gwic.cgi?Path=shakespeare/tragedies/kinglear/v_iii//&Word=the+same,
  • w]
  • * 1994 , (Clerks) :
  • ''Dante: Whose house was it?
    ''Blue-Collar Man: Dominick Bambino's.
    ''Randal: "Babyface" Bambino? The gangster?
    Blue-Collar Man: The same . [http://www.whysanity.net/monos/clerks5.html]
    Usage notes
    * This word is usually construed with the (except after demonstratives: "this same.." etc.). This can make it difficult to distinguish between the simple adjective and the adjective used absolutely or pronominally.
    Synonyms
    * (identical) identical, equal, equivalent * (similar) similar, alike
    Antonyms
    * different, other, another
    Derived terms
    * by the same token * of the same stripe * same-blooded * same difference * sameish * samely * sameness * same old same old * same old story * same-sex * self-same

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • The identical thing, ditto.
  • Something similar, something of the identical type.
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.}}
  • It or them, without a connotation of similarity.
  • Light valve suspensions and films containing UV absorbers and light valves containing the same (US Patent 5,467,217)
    Methods of selectively distributing data in a computer network and systems using the same (US Patent 7,191,208)
  • It or them, as above, meaning the last object mentioned, mainly as complement: on the same'', ''for the same .
  • My picture/photography blog...kindly give me your reviews on the same .
    Usage notes
    * This word is commonly used as the same .
    Derived terms
    * all the same * one and the same * same to you

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (also (m), (m)), from (etyl) .

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Together.
  • Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) 200 English basic words 1000 English basic words ----

    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.