Can you say very unique

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. Translations of unique in Chinese Traditional.

See more. Need a translator? Translator tool. What is the pronunciation of unique? Browse unionize. Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Image credits. Word of the Day sweetheart. Blog Outsets and onsets! Read More. November 08, To top. English American Business Examples Translations.

Sign up for free and get access to exclusive content:. Free word lists and quizzes from Cambridge. Tools to create your own word lists and quizzes. Word lists shared by our community of dictionary fans. Sign up now or Log in. Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English.

Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Follow us. While many learners probably want only to become proficient in conversation, I suspect there are at least a few in this forum who have more specific aspirations. Thus, being aware of differences is important. Kris -- Please see my comment addressed to Scott Severance.

Instead of "very unique", I offer "extremely unusual", or "almost unique" as satisfactory substitutes. Barbara: If your answer specified that it was related to formal or academic contexts, I would have no objection. However, since most communication is informal or neutral, it's reasonable to assume a neutral or informal stance in the absence of an explicit context to the contrary. Show 2 more comments. Ted Ted Why not? I see it as a matter of degree You might have a "unique shade of red" but it's not particularly different from other shades of red, but you might have a piece of artwork that's like nothing else from that artist, and so it might be very unique in that it's set far apart from others in its group and is quite unusual.

Catija I would argue that you cannot have a unique shade of red, actually. You could have an unusual shade or even an uncommon shade if you rarely see it, but shades can be perfectly duplicated so cannot be unique.

We often use comparatives with supposedly uncomparable adjectives to describe distance from an absolute condition, or the degree to which it is observable: a more complete answer, a more perfect union, a more fundamental cause. I'd say unique is among the more universal of the accepted comparatives.

JimMacKenzie substitute red with anything you like Catija We'll have to agree to disagree. Antish Antish 1. Unique has more than one definition. Furthermore, other answers have stated the same thing already, so I'm voting this answer down because it's useless. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Linked Related 1. Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms. Time Traveler. Love words?

Need even more definitions? Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? How 'literally' can mean "figuratively". Literally How to use a word that literally drives some pe Is Singular 'They' a Better Choice? The awkward case of 'his or her'. Take the quiz. Our Favorite New Words How many do you know?