Grammar Grappler #28: Very Unique?

“Halleigh, the spelling of your name is very unique.”

“She had a very unique way of expressing frustration.”

“The author took a most unique approach to revealing the murderer at the end of the mystery novel.”

Very unique?

Most unique?

Very unique is another phrase we should send to the Redundancy Department of Redundancy. Why? Unique actually means “unlike anything else.” It’s unique. Period. It is unnecessary to modify it with words like very and most. According to its definition, you can’t have varying degrees of uniqueness. Something can’t be a little unique or a lot unique or very unique. It’s unique—just like a rainbow unicorn.

 

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