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Particular vs Unique - What's the difference?

particular | unique |

As adjectives the difference between particular and unique

is that particular is pertaining only to a part of something; partial while unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.

As nouns the difference between particular and unique

is that particular is a small individual part of something larger; a detail, a point while unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.

particular

English

Alternative forms

* perticular (obsolete)

Adjective

(-)
  • (obsolete) Pertaining only to a part of something; partial.
  • Specific; discrete; concrete.
  • I couldn't find the particular model you asked for, but I hope this one will do.
    We knew it was named after John Smith, but nobody knows which particular John Smith.
  • * Shakespeare
  • [Make] each particular hair to stand an end, / Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
  • Specialised; characteristic of a specific person or thing.
  • I don't appreciate your particular brand of cynicism.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • wheresoever one plant draweth such a particular juice out of the earth
  • (obsolete) Known only to an individual person or group; confidential.
  • * 1623 , William Shakespeare, King Lear , V.1:
  • or these domesticke and particular broiles, Are not the question heere.
  • Distinguished in some way; special (often in negative constructions).
  • My five favorite places are, in no particular order, New York, Chicago, Paris, San Francisco and London.
    I didn't have any particular interest in the book.
    He brought no particular news.
    She was the particular belle of the party.
  • (comparable) Of a person, concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; precise; fastidious.
  • He is very particular about his food and if it isn't cooked to perfection he will send it back.
  • Concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; circumstantial; precise.
  • a full and particular account of an accident
  • (legal) Containing a part only; limited.
  • a particular estate, or one precedent to an estate in remainder
  • (legal) Holding a particular estate.
  • a particular tenant
    (Blackstone)
  • (logic) Forming a part of a genus; relatively limited in extension; affirmed or denied of a part of a subject.
  • a particular proposition, opposed to "universal", e.g. (particular affirmative) "Some men are wise"; (particular negative) "Some men are not wise".

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * general

    Derived terms

    * antiparticularism * antiparticularist * in particular * particular average * particular Church * particular integral * particularism * particularize * particularly * particularity

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small individual part of something larger; a detail, a point.
  • (obsolete) A person's own individual case.
  • *, II.16:
  • *:Since philosophy could never find any way for tranquillity that might be generally good, let every man in his particular seeke for it.
  • * Whole Duty of Man
  • temporal blessings, whether such as concern the publicor such as concern our particular
  • *
  • Statistics

    * ----

    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.