English

Adjective

nonpareil ‎(comparative more nonpareil, superlative most nonpareil)

1. Unequalled, unrivalled; unique. [from 15th c.]
   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, Abacus 2013, p. 33:

     A veritable artist, possessed of a deftness nonpareil with cotton swab and evacuation-hypo, the medical attaché is known among the shrinking upper classes of petro-Arab nations as the DeBakey of maxillofacial yeast […].

Noun

nonpareil ‎(countable and uncountable, plural nonpareils)

1. A person or thing that has no equal; a paragon. [from 16th c.]
   • c.1599-1601, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will,

     My lord and master loves you. O, such love / Could be but recompens'd though you were crown'd / The nonpareil of beauty!

   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III.2.2.ii:

     King John of France, once prisoner in England, came […] to see the Countess of Salisbury, the nonpareil of those times, and his dear mistress.

2. A small pellet of colored sugar used as decoration on baked goods and candy.
3. A small, flat chocolate drop covered with white pellets of sugar, similar to a comfit.
4. A smaller grade of caper.
5. (uncountable, dated, printing) The size of type between agate and minion, standardized as 6-point.
   • 1881 May 19, Hermann Cohn, Eyes and School-Books, in Popular Science Monthly,

     I believe that letters which are less than a millimetre and a half (1/17 inch) high, will finally prove injurious to the eye. How little attention has hitherto been paid to this important subject is exemplified in the fact that even oculistic journals and books frequently contain nonpareil, or letters only a millimetre (1/25 inch) high.

Synonyms

• (colored sugar pellet): (UK, Australian, plural only) hundreds and thousands, (US) sprinkles
• (type size): (Continental contexts) nonpareille

Translations

Middle French

Alternative forms

• nompareil

Adjective

nonpareil m ‎(feminine singular nonpareille, masculine plural nonpareils, feminine plural nonpareilles)

1. unparallelled; unprecedented