unparalleled
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of unparalleled
Explanation
If something's unparalleled, there's never been anything like it — such as a brilliant musical performance or a record-breaking time for an athlete. Remember parallel lines from your old geometry classes — lines running alongside each other always at the same distance that never meet and are essentially identical? Well, that's the idea unparalleled comes from — except the opposite (thus the "un"). Sporting achievements are particularly prone to being described as unparalleled, since athletes are always out to break records.
Vocabulary lists containing unparalleled
Frindle
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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Herbert Hoover on "Rugged Individualism" (1928)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"For over two and a half years, journalists in Gaza have recorded death, destruction, and human suffering in unparalleled terms," reads the citation of the award.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
“Arm stands out in server CPUs given its unparalleled power efficiency,” Dai said in a Monday note.
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
He now somehow finds himself in a naval crisis unparalleled in maritime history.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 9, 2026
The zoo said the aviary, the largest on site, had been designed to offer an "unparalleled" look at Ramasees and Belladonna, and change perceptions about these birds of prey.
From BBC • May 8, 2026
It was this kind of willful, wildly romantic attention to beauty—crumbling and fading beauty needing constant attention—that made this city so unlike any other and such an unparalleled sort of environment for a builder.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
