One of a Kind

rogersgeorge on May 26th, 2021

This error is so common, you probably won’t get the joke at first, except maybe for the hint in the post’s title.

https://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2004/12/08

Second panel. The teacher is deliberately (I assume) repeating the student’s incongruity in the first panel.

Unique is an absolute. It means “one of a kind,” period, so modifiers like ‘somewhat,’ ‘more or less,’ and so on, are semantically incorrect. Get it now?

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Rogers George has been a technical writer for more than 20 years. He has written on subjects as diverse as outhouse assembly, restaurant reviews, software, information security, and scientific equipment. He has his own writing consultancy and is always happy to discuss writing and grammar. Drop him a line at curmudgeon@writing-rag.com.

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