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Unique vs Diff - What's the difference?

unique | diff |

As nouns the difference between unique and diff

is that unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled while diff is (slang).

As an adjective unique

is (not comparable) being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

As a verb diff is

(computing) to run a diff program on (files or items) so as to produce a description of the differences between them, as for a patch file.

As a proper noun diff is

(computing) a program, historically part of the unix operating system, which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.

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.

    diff

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang)
  • A peach and an apricot? What's the diff ?
  • (computing) Any program which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
  • (computing) The output of a diff program. A diff file.
  • * 2004 , , Great Hackers , Essay:
  • I didn't want to waste people's time telling them things they already knew. It's more efficient just to give them the diffs .
  • (medicine) : differential of types of white blood cell in a complete blood count.
  • (slang)
  • (rock climbing) A difficult route.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (computing) To run a diff program on (files or items) so as to produce a description of the differences between them, as for a patch file.
  • (computing) To compare two files or other objects, manually or otherwise.
  • Proper noun

    (en proper noun)
  • (computing) A program, historically part of the Unix operating system, which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
  • See also

    * (computing ) patch