Nonpareil

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /nÉ’npəˈɹeɪl/, /ˈnÉ’np(É™)ɹəl/
• US IPA: /nÉ‘npəˈɹɛl/

Origin

From Middle French nonpareil ("unparalleled") (obsolete in French), from non- + pareil.

Full definition of nonpareil

Adjective

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

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. (obsolete, printing) A type size between minion and agate or ruby (roughly 6pt); nonpareille.
• 1881 May 19, Hermann Cohn, , in Popular Science,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

• hundreds and thousands (UK, Australian, plural only)
• sprinkles (probably US, plural only)