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Unique vs Intricate - What's the difference?

unique | intricate |

As adjectives the difference between unique and intricate

is that unique is (not comparable) being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched while intricate is having a great deal of fine detail or complexity.

As a noun unique

is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

As a verb intricate is

to become enmeshed or entangled.

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 ----

    intricate

    English

    Alternative forms

    * entricate

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) intricatus'' (past participle of ''intricare ).

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having a great deal of fine detail or complexity.
  • :
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • *:His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness.
  • *
  • *:As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”

    • Etymology 2

    As the adjective; or by analogy with extricate

    Verb

    (intricat)
  • To become enmeshed or entangled.
  • * 1864 October 18, J.E. Freund, “ How to Avoid the Use of Lint”, letter to the editor, in The New York Times (1864 October 23):
    • washes off easily, without sticking or intricating into the wound.
  • To enmesh or entangle: to cause to intricate.
  • * 1994 December 12, , “ Avoid Dunkirk II” (essay), in The New York Times :
    • But the British and French won't hear of that; they want to get their troops extricated and our ground troops intricated .

    Anagrams

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