Unique vs Novel - What's the difference?
unique | novel |
(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
(obsolete) A novelty; something new.
*, II.2.4:
A work of prose fiction, longer than a short story.
(classical studies, historical) A new legal constitution in ancient Rome.
As adjectives the difference between unique and novel
is that unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched while novel is new, original, especially in an interesting way.As nouns the difference between unique and novel
is that unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled while novel is a novelty; something new.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.
novel
English
(wikipedia novel)Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Usage notes
* Said of ideas, ways, etc.Synonyms
* See alsoEtymology 2
In various senses from (etyl) novelle or (etyl) novella, both from (etyl) novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, from . Some senses came to English directly from the Latin. (etystub)Noun
(en noun)- merry talessuch as the old woman told of Psyche in Apuleius, Boccace novels , and the rest, quarum auditione pueri delectantur, senes narratione , which some delight to hear, some to tell, all are well pleased with.