kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 17, 2020
- #1
These three words seem to have the same meaning.
Each has one or two of the others as enter words on a dictionary.
What's the difference in meaning between these three?
"umparalleled" seems a bit different from the others because a dictionary says "greater or worse than any other in its kind", thus the word means its meaning from the perspective that something is greater or worse, unlike unexampled or unprecedented which means their meanings from the perspective that there wasn't something like that.
(*But ,although the perspectives are different, what each means in the end seems same.)
The context where unexampled is used.
Hebridean residents warn: our island is going to sink
The context where unprecedented is used.
Cannabis stores in Canada see unprecedented sales surge
The context where umparalleled is used.
Redirect Notice
lingobingo
Senior Member
London
English - England
- Mar 17, 2020
- #2
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word unexampled! There is no such verb as to example. Unprecedented means never done or seen before.
Unparalleled means unique – having no equivalent or parallel.
kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 17, 2020
- #3
lingobingo said:
Unprecedented means never done or seen before.
Unparalleled means unique – having no equivalent or parallel.
If we put these two in a sentence, I thought they end up meaning same.
e.g.
❶Cannabis stores in Canada see unprecedented sales surge
❷Cannabis stores in Canada see umparalleled sales surge
It seems like that the speaker is seeing a thing from (a bit) different perspectives. Is it correct?
❶→perspective that something has never happened
❷→perspective that something is granter or worse than any in its kind
lingobingo
Senior Member
London
English - England
- Mar 17, 2020
- #4
The two words convey the same idea in that context (i.e. that it’s an entirely new/different phenomenon). That’s not the same as their having the same intrinsic meaning. In fact, unprecedented is no doubt true, but unparalleled very possibly isn’t, if the same sort of thing is happening all over the world.
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Chez
Senior Member
London
English English
- Mar 17, 2020
- #5
They sort of mean the same in this context. But, strictly speaking, the first means that the event (a big surge in sales) has never happened before; and the second one means there has never been such a BIG rise in sales.
kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 17, 2020
- #6
Chez said:
the first means that the event (a big surge in sales) has never happened before; and the second one means there has never been such a BIG rise in sales.
The two sentences itself seems to mean same. Are you saying they are just different ways to deliver the same information?
kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 17, 2020
- #7
lingobingo said:
They convey the same information in that context. That’s not the same as their having the same intrinsic meaning.
What are that their? the two words(unparalled and unprecedented) or something else?
lingobingo
Senior Member
London
English - England
- Mar 17, 2020
- #8
Yes. See edited post #4.
Andygc
Senior Member
Devon
British English
- Mar 17, 2020
- #9
Why do you say this?
kansi said:
These three words seem to have the same meaning.
They don't. Dictionaries use near synonyms in an attempt to make the meanings clear. Unfortunately you seem to seize on the clarification, not the principal definition.
From Collins.
unprecedented adj
having no precedent; unparalleled
unparalleled adj
unmatched; unequalled
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Chez
Senior Member
London
English English
- Mar 17, 2020
- #10
kansi, I don't know if in Japanese there is only one correct way to convey any particular idea. In English there are often lots of ways to say similar things. A native-speaker reading the sentences in your post 3 would not spend a lot of time thinking about the exact, precise meaning of unparalleled or unprecedented. They would just understand either sentence as meaning 'this surge in sales is particularly large and unusual'.
kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 17, 2020
- #11
Andygc said:
unprecedented adj
having no precedent; unparalleledunparalleled adj
unmatched; unequalled
Well are you expecting me to know the meaning of "precedent", although I am asking the meaning of "unprecedented" here?
kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 17, 2020
- #12
Chez said:
They would just understand either sentence as meaning 'this surge in sales is particularly large and unusual'.
That's how I understand both sentences.
So the two sentences are (a little) different ways to deliver information but what they mean is same?
Andygc
Senior Member
Devon
British English
- Mar 17, 2020
- #13
kansi said:
Well are you expecting me to know the meaning of "precedent", although I am asking the meaning of "unprecedented" here?
No. I'm quoting two dictionary definitions, from Collins, in the Wordreference dictionary. It shouldn't be too difficult to look up "precedent". Indeed, I don't expect anybody who doesn't know the meaning of "unprecedented" to know the meaning of "precedent". If you did know the meaning of "precedent" you'd be unlikely to be troubled by "unprecedented" - the negating prefix "un-" is very common.
kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 18, 2020
- #14
Andygc said:
From Collins.
unprecedented adj
having no precedent; unparalleledunparalleled adj
unmatched; unequalled
Andygc said:
No. I'm quoting two dictionary definitions, from Collins, in the Wordreference dictionary. It shouldn't be too difficult to look up "precedent". Indeed, I don't expect anybody who doesn't know the meaning of "unprecedented" to know the meaning of "precedent". If you did know the meaning of "precedent" you'd be unlikely to be troubled by "unprecedented" - the negating prefix "un-" is very common.
well
●precedent
Collins:If there is a precedent for an action or event, it has happenedbefore, and this can be regarded as an argument for doing it again.
→unprecedented: charactrized that something has never happened.
●parallel
→If something has a parallel, it is similar to something else, but exists or happens in a different place or at a different time. If it has no parallel or is without parallel, it is not similar to anything else.
→unparalleled:charactrized that something isn't simlar to anything
(Does this mean or is it interpreted as charactrized that something hasn't never happened, which is same to unprecedented?)
Don't you think these words(unparallel and unprecedented) have the same meaning?I am not able to see that they are different at thig goinj.
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Andygc
Senior Member
Devon
British English
- Mar 18, 2020
- #15
kansi said:
Don't you think these words(unparallel and unprecedented) have the same meaning?I am not able to see that they are different.
No. And I would have thought that was obvious from what you have written.
kansi
Senior Member
japanese
- Mar 18, 2020
- #16
Andygc said:
No. And I would have thought that was obvious from what you have written.
Oh, okay. That's different from what I thought...I should fix it. How are they different?
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