Unique vs Irregular - What's the difference?
unique | irregular | Related terms |
(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
Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.
* {{quote-book
, year = 1967
, first = Barbara
, last = Sleigh
, authorlink = Barbara Sleigh
, title = (Jessamy)
, edition = 1993
, location = Sevenoaks, Kent
, publisher=Bloomsbury
, isbn = 0 340 19547 9
, page = 33
, url =
, passage = ‘ “It would be most irregular' Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty ' irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’
}}
Of a surface, rough.
Without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity.
*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01-01, author=Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore
, volume=101, issue=1, page=47–48, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=
, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal.
Whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other).
A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics.
Unique is a related term of irregular.
As adjectives the difference between unique and irregular
is that unique is (not comparable) being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched while irregular is irregular.As a noun unique
is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.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.
irregular
English
(wikipedia irregular)Adjective
(en adjective)The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.}}
Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight, passage=Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus ) undergo an irregular , nomadic type of nocturnal migration.}}
Ian Sample
Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains, passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
