What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Selective vs Unique - What's the difference?

selective | unique |

As adjectives the difference between selective and unique

is that selective is of or pertaining to the process of selection while unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

As a noun unique is

a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

selective

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of or pertaining to the process of selection.(rfex)
  • (of a person) choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting.
  • He's very selective and spent hours in the store choosing a new shirt.
  • (chiefly, US, not comparable) Having the authority or capability to make a selection.
  • In the USA, military conscription is controlled by the Selective Service.

    Derived terms

    * selectiveness

    References

    *

    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.