Individual vs Unique - What's the difference?
individual | unique |
A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.
(legal) A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.
* 1982 , Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms :
An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.
* {{quote-book, year=2006, chapter=Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory, title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, author=Steven French
, passage=It is typically held that chairs, trees, rocks, people and many of the so-called ‘everyday’ objects we encounter can be regarded as individuals .}}
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= (lb) An element belonging to a population.
Relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Intended for a single person as opposed to more than one person.
(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 *
*
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}}
A thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.
* De Quincey
As nouns the difference between individual and unique
is that individual is a person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people while unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.As adjectives the difference between individual and unique
is that individual is relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one while unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.individual
English
Alternative forms
* individuall (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)- Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination […].
citation
Katrina G. Claw
Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual .}}
Adjective
(en adjective)End of the peer show, passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}
Synonyms
* (relating to a single person or thing) (l), (l) * (intended for a single person or thing) (l), (l)Antonyms
* (relating to a single person or thing) (l) * (intended for a single person or thing) (l), (l), (l)External links
* *Statistics
* ----unique
English
Adjective
(en adjective)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—’}}
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 * singularDerived terms
* uniquenessNoun
(en noun)- The phoenix, the unique of birds.