Unit vs Unique - What's the difference?
unit | unique |
(sciences) A standard measure of a quantity.
The number one.
An organized group comprising people and/or equipment.
(military, informal) A member of a military organization.
(US, military) Any military element whose structure is prescribed by competent authority, such as a table of organization and equipment; specifically, part of an organizationJoint Publication 1-02 U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms; 12 April 2001 (As Amended Through 14 April 2006). .
(US, military) An organization title of a subdivision of a group in a task force.
(US, military) A standard or basic quantity into which an item of supply is divided, issued or used. In this meaning, also called unit of issue.
(US, military) With regard to Reserve Components of the Armed Forces, denotes a Selected Reserve unit organized, equipped, and trained for mobilization to serve on active duty as a unit or to augment or be augmented by another unit. Headquarters and support functions without wartime missions are not considered units.
(algebra) An element of a ring having a multiplicative inverse. (Formerly just the identity element 1R of a ring.)
(geology) A volume of rock or ice of identifiable origin and age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features (facies) that characterize it.
(commerce) An item which may be sold singly.
(UK, electricity) One kilowatt-hour (as recorded on an electricity meter).
(Australia, New Zealand) a measure of housing equivalent to the living quarters of one household, an apartment where a group of apartments is contained in one or more multi-storied buildings or a group of dwellings is in one or more single storey buildings, usually arranged around a driveway.
(historical) A gold coin of the reign of James I, worth twenty shillings.
For each unit.
(mathematics) Having a size or magnitude of one.
* 1990 , William W. S. Wei, Time Series Analysis , ISBN 0201159112, page 9:
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(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 unit and unique
is that unit is a standard measure of a quantity while unique is a thing without a like; something unequalled or unparallelled.As adjectives the difference between unit and unique
is that unit is for each unit while unique is being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched.unit
English
(Unit)Noun
(en noun)- The centimetre is a unit of length.
- This pill provides 500 units of Vitamin E.
- He was a member of a special police unit .
- The fifth tank brigade moved in with 20 units .'' (''i.e., 20 tanks )
- We shipped nearly twice as many units this month as last month.
- (Camden)
Synonyms
* (identity element) identity element, unit elementAdjective
(-)- We have to keep our unit costs down if we want to make a profit.
- Consider the following time sequence
- where is a random variable with a zero mean and a unit variance and is a random variable with a uniform distribution on the interval independent of .
Derived terms
* construction unit * tractor unit * unit aircraft * unitality * unit cost * unit combat readiness * unit commitment status * unit designation listReferences
External links
* * *Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----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.