Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having no equal; peerless: the Yankees' nonpareil center fielder.
- n. A person or thing that has no equal; a paragon.
- n. See painted bunting.
- n. A small, flat chocolate drop covered with white pellets of sugar.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having no equal; peerless.
- n. A person or thing of peerless excellence; a nonesuch; something regarded as unique in its kind.
- n. Specifically— In ornithology:
- n. The pointed finch or painted bunting, Passerina or Cyanospiza ciris: so called from its beauty. The top and sides of the head and neck are rich-blue, the back golden-green, the rump and under parts vermilion-red. The female is greenish above, yellowish below. The bird is about 5½ inches long, and common in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, especially Louisiana, where it is sometimes called pape or pope. It is a near relative of the indigo-bird and the lazuli-finch. Also called incomparable.
- n. The rose- or rosella-parrakeet, Platycercus eximius: so called from its beauty. See cut under rosella.
- n. In conchology, a gastropod of the genus Clausilia.
- n. In printing, a size of type, forming about 12 lines to the inch. In the American system of sizes it is intermediate between minion (larger) and agate (smaller); in the English system it is between the sizes emerald (larger) and ruby (smaller). (The type of this paragraph is nonpareil.)
Wiktionary
- n. A person or thing that has no equal; a paragon.
- n. A small pellet of colored sugar used as decoration on baked goods and candy.
- n. A small, flat chocolate drop covered with white pellets of sugar, similar to a comfit.
- n. obsolete (printing) A type size; nonpareille.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Something of unequaled excellence; a peerless thing or person; a nonesuch; -- often used as a name.
- n. (Print.) A size of type next smaller than
minion and next larger thanagate (orruby ). - n. A beautifully colored finch (Passerina ciris), native of the Southern United States. The male has the head and neck deep blue, rump and under parts bright red, back and wings golden green, and the tail bluish purple. Called also
painted bunting andpainted finch . - n. Any other similar bird of the same genus.
- n. (Cookery) A small sphere, less than 1 mm diamter, of colored sugar, used to decorate confections; -- usually used in the plural as though the name of a substance.
- n. A type of candy chocolate consisting of a small flat disk of chocolate, less than one inch diameter, having nonpareils{4} sprinkled on the top.
- adj. Having no equal; peerless.
WordNet 3.0
- n. model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal
- n. colored beads of sugar used as a topping on e.g. candies and cookies
- n. a flat disk of chocolate covered with beads of colored sugar
- adj. eminent beyond or above comparison
Etymologies
- From Middle French nonpareil ("unparalleled") (obsolete in French), from non- + pareil. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English nounparalle, from Old French nonpareil : non-, non- + pareil, equal (from Vulgar Latin *pariculus, diminutive of Latin pār, equal; see perə-2 in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“My greatest discovery on this front has been Vida Vida's stupendous leather weekend bag, aka the nonpareil of luggagery £195, www.vidavida.co.uk .”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Smith had acknowledged this in his "True Relation," where he referred to her as the "nonpareil" of”
“Capers range from about the size of petite green peas - called "nonpareil," a product of France - to almost twice that size.”
“In fact, as other articles pointed out, our -- as no fitting word has been found for it, let's go with -- withdrawal was a magnificent feat of reverse engineering, worthy of a force that was a nonpareil on the planet.”
“Love it.staceyc• Twitter is the crystal meth of social notworking, the time-vampire nonpareil.”
“In the week a new, bold young Masters champion has been anointed I am reminded of a piece I never tire of quoting by Alistair Cooke in these very pages half a century ago, about another Bobby, another courtly nonpareil, Bobby Jones, who inspired the very foundation of the Masters at Augusta in 1934.”
The Guardian: My dream job as Bobby Moore's minder for a fortnight | Frank Keating
“DadBoner, who is either a real person or a profound literary construction, the despondent American post-marriage male persona nonpareil, Homer Simpson's Kafkaesque better.”
The Huffington Post: Aaron Belz: Literary Twitter: @DadBoner
“The bigger myth is how the nonpareil American intelligence agencies designed and executed a brilliant strategy to track down and eliminate bin Laden.”
“Moments later, Odom's coward exit was topped by underachiever nonpareil Andrew Bynum, who leveled the Dallas guard J.J. Barea with a midair elbow.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Start of a New Silly Season for Jackson
“Witnessing the steady expansion of buzz for the film — which sees Stephenson embrace his childhood role and cult status in the nonpareil B-movie of our generation, Troll 2, while seeking out his former cast mates — has been a lesson in DIY spirit and Drafthouse-lead modern geek networking.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nonpareil’.
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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phrontistery - n
from phrontistery.info
nymphology, nympholepsy, nyctophobia, nymphean, nyctograph, nyctanthous, nyctalopia, nychthemeral, nutricial, nutrice, nutrication, nychthemeron and 340 more...
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confectionary
lollies sweets
caramel gets 48 hits
chocolate gets 112 hits
nonpareil 83 hitsconfectionary, chocolate, chew, alcorza, taffy, lolly, sweets, blackball, bonbon, brickle, bubblegum, cachou and 137 more...
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#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
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of Montreal
Every time I finally decipher Kevin Barnes's song lyrics, I feel somewhat smarter.
These are strange/big/obscure words and phrases from the lyrics of the band 'of Montreal' (intentiona...southern hemisphe..., paradigm, Phaidon Press, permutation, List Christie, Gemini Tactics, eluardian, persecution complex, Himmlers, parabola, Mono Club, subconscious mass... and 132 more...
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Chocolate Passion
Words related to my favorite addiction, chocolate!
chocolate, algarroba, alkali, bean, bittersweet, bloom, cacao, cocoa, tempering, cocoa powder, fermentation, pod and 50 more...
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Beyond Questions
Does pork cavort?, Do bungalows have..., Do burro(w)s have..., What do zappa zap?, indubitability, indisputability, in spades, myrmidon, West Lothian ques..., Lagrange multipliers, ultramontanism, conundrum and 18 more...
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ecbatic's list
woofits, concierge, winsome, garish, cognate, peevish, oodles, undulate, fodder, nonpareil, reticulated, gabulous and 13 more...
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doubtlessly reduntant
pedentive, pendentive, fantod, nonpareil, apposite, anfractuous, amanuensis, sherbet, erumpent, verdigris, styptic, tektitic and 24 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Shakespeare.02
sprite, liege, benison, transpose, nonpareil, vantage, disburse, sheathe, harbinger, rapt, minion, purge and 3 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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ymmez22's Words
despotic, fiefdom, demagogue, vignette, chavvy, esoteric, stalwarts, unpalatable, eradicated, rapacious, repugnant, zeitgeist and 89 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nonpareil.

bookhling Reminds me of... Chocolates and frozen green tea yogurt! Aug 18, 2008
plethora Am I the only one who thought sionnach's picture looked tasty?
And those chocolate buttons with the hundreds and thousands? They're only called buttons when they're dodgy, cheap as chips brand. When they're, say, Allen's brand, they're called freckles. And that's good chocolate, they're very tasty. Jul 20, 2008
reesetee Then your mother clearly needs to be on Wordie. Dec 8, 2007
bilby I still don't like the picture. My mother would say something like 'mini cow pats with dandruff". Dec 8, 2007
reesetee Okay, I'm not waiting for uselessness anymore. ;-)
I just discovered (and posted on the hundreds and thousands page) that the term nonpareil originally applied to the little white balls on the round chocolate discs, not the chocolate discs themselves. Fascinating.
My dad loves those things--or at least he used to. Maybe he's just humoring us now when we buy them for him. Dec 8, 2007
chained_bear Oh my gosh, I forgot all about hundreds and thousands! It struck me as one of the oddest things I'd ever heard. Also, sionnach... did you purposely go and find a picture that has cookies (biscuits) with something atop them that resembles... ahem... fecal matter?
My brother used to use this extruding device thingie to make chocolate-batter cookies. He called (calls) them turd cookies. The recipe doesn't call for hundreds and thousands at all, though. Dec 8, 2007
pomegranate I LOVE those nonpareil button thingies! But then, I also love Sweetarts, so I would hardly say that my taste in sweets is refined. Dec 8, 2007
sionnach Bilby: in Ireland we call them (the hideous chocolate candy thingies) buttons as well, though I don't know anyone who actually eats them, since they generally consist of cheap milk chocolate, rendered completely unpalatable by the grittiness of the white things.
We also use hundreds and thousands to designate what Americans call sprinkles or jimmies. However, the brand of hundreds and thousands I am most familiar with actually contains spheres covering a distribution of sizes, generally including some larger balls with a kind of metallic tint.
Somewhat like this picture:
hundreds and thousands
Typically, the layer of whipped cream atop a trifle is sprinkled with hundreds and thousands before serving. Dec 8, 2007
reesetee Well, I--
You're right, of course. We'll wait for uselessness.
*waiting*
*tapping foot* Dec 8, 2007
bilby Besides, I really don't think we can proceed without a comment from uselessness, who typically has a uselessness thing to say. Dec 8, 2007
bilby And what are they? In Australia we would call them buttons ... that's a start. The white things resemble a fungal infection from Fascinating Malaysian Toe Amputation Manual - Director's Cut. IF they were coloured, and tasted like nothing but the sweet delinquence of sugar and decadence in a tiny ball, we would call them hundreds and thousands. Dec 8, 2007
reesetee No, these! Dec 7, 2007
bilby Truffles? Dec 7, 2007
reesetee What? I thought they were those little round chocolates with white nubbles on them.
Oh...bunting....
*rattles head* Dec 7, 2007
bilby I don't think it's nice to make birds into tacky coloured flags for used-car lots. Dec 7, 2007
reesetee An obsolete name for the Varied Bunting. Dec 7, 2007
arby NOUN: A person or thing so excellent as to have no equal or match: nonesuch, paragon, phoenix. See GOOD.
ADJECTIVE: Without equal or rival: alone, incomparable, matchless, only, peerless, singular, unequaled, unexampled, unique, unmatched, unparalleled, unrivaled. See SAME. Apr 18, 2007