• home
  • vocab
  • tutoring
  • blog
  • help

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > UNPARALLELED

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.



pronounce UNPARALLELED:

un PAIR uh leld
Your browser does not support the audio element.


connect this word to others:

When I hear the word unparalleled, meaning "having nothing that runs alongside it, literally or figuratively," I think of this lyric from The Decemberists that playfully combines the literal and the figurative:

"And I am nothing of a builder,
But here I dreamt I was an architect,
And I built this balustrade
To keep you home, to keep you safe
From the outside world.
But the angles and the corners,
Even though my work is unparalleled,
They never seemed to meet.
This structure fell about our feet
And we were free to go."

That always makes me giggle.

Looking closely at the pieces inside unparalleled, after the "un-" for "not," we see "para-," meaning "beside," and the Greek allos, meaning "other"—and so something unparalleled is so excellent that no other thing can stand beside it.

Let's recall some synonyms of unparalleled:

1. Something so excellent that it can't be copied is in____able.

2. Something so excellent that nothing can attack or criticize it is unas___able.

3. And something so excellent that it can't be challenged in a court of law is unim_____able.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

(Source)

Let's start with "parallel," which traces back through Latin to Greek and literally means "beside each other." Literally parallel things, like parallel lines, are always exactly the same distance apart. And figuratively parallel things are similar or happening at the same time.

That brings us to the verb, "to parallel," meaning to be equal to some other thing; and to the adjective, "paralleled," for things that do have equals, that do have things that are just as good as them.

So, something "unparalleled" has no equal. The unparalleled thing or person is so excellent or so high-quality that nothing else (or no one else) can ever be that good.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "his unparalleled talent on the piano;" "His talent on the piano is unparalleled."

Other forms: 

If you need a noun for the quality, it's "unparalleledness." And if you need an adverb, it's "unparalleledly."

Both sound terrible. How about some different words, like "uniqueness" and "uniquely;" "singularity" and "singularly;" or "phenomenon" and "phenomenally"?

how to use it:

Pick the graceful, emphatic word "unparalleled" when you want to call attention to something not just excellent but unique.

We talk about unparalleled skills, abilities, successes, accomplishments, emotions (like joy or exhilaration), and qualities (like beauty, grace, or depth).

Although "unparalleled" most often has a positive tone, it can also describe negative things. You might talk about an unparalleled crisis, challenge, or loss of life.

If you want to sound even more emphatic, instead of "unparalleled," you can pick the fancier French equivalent, "nonpareil."

examples:

"Charles Darwin left an unparalleled legacy to science. He gave future generations of scientists 'a theory by which to work.'"
  — Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith, 2009

"More than a century after its opening, the [Panama] canal remains an unparalleled triumph of infrastructure and a cornerstone of our globalized economy, in which 80% of trade moves by sea." 
  — Gerard Helferich, Wall Street Journal, 2015

has this page helped you understand "unparalleled"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "unparalleled" without saying "unmatched" or "peerless."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Someone) (does something) with unparalleled (grace, speed, skill, power, control, passion, talent, or some other admirable quality)."

Example 1: "On his show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Fred Rogers taught children self-acceptance, emotional control, and caring for others, all with unparalleled tenderness." 

Example 2: "Our understanding of genes has allowed us to manipulate organisms with unparalleled dexterity and power."
  — Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History, 2016




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Fragments.

In each issue, check out an excerpt from a master of American prose, one in which I've changed the lovely sentence fragments into ugly but grammatically correct sentences. Try restoring the excerpt to its original glory by chiseling those sentences down into fragments.

Here's an example, from Washington Irving's story "Rip Van Winkle."

I'll give you this fussily corrected version:

He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the Kaatskill mountains had always been haunted by strange beings. He also assured them that it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half-moon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name. Also, he assured them that his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder.

And you give me a better, more natural version, as close to the master's original as you can imagine, by stripping the highlighted sentences down to fragments, like this:

He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the Kaatskill mountains had always been haunted by strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half-moon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name. That his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder.

Try this one today. It's from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature:

But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, they are great! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

To see the original version, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The precise opposite of UNPARALLELED is PARALLELED. But some pretty close opposites of UNPARALLELED are

A. TIRED and FLAGGING.
B. COMMON and MIDDLING.
C. GORGEOUS and ARRESTING.

2. According to Silvia Mantovanini and Science Daily, in 2026 a new image of the Milky Way offered "an unparalleled perspective" of the galaxy, "_____."

A. instrumental in continuing the study of the galaxy's shape
B. able to clearly depict remains of ancient stellar explosions
C. sharper, deeper, and wider than anything previously released




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. C

From the game: There are lots of different ways to render each highlighted bit into a fragment! If your version pleases your ears, then you did great.

Here's the original version:

But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

Subscribe to "Make Your Point" for a daily vocabulary boost.



© Copyright 2026 | All rights reserved.