Nonpareil

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Nonpareil \Non`pa*reil"\, a. [F., from non not + pareil equal,
     fr. LL. pariculus, dim. of L. par equal. See {Non}, and
     {Pair}, {Peer}.]
     Having no equal; peerless.
     [1913 Webster]



From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Nonpareil \Non`pa*reil"\, n. [See {Nonpareil}, a. ]
     1. Something of unequaled excellence; a peerless thing or
        person; a nonesuch; -- often used as a name.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. [F. nonpareille.] (Print.) A size of type next smaller
        than minion and next larger than agate (or ruby).
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: This line is printed in the type called nonpareil.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Zool.)
        (a) 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} and {painted
            finch}.
        (b) Any other similar bird of the same genus.
            [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
     4. (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; as,
        sprinkled with nonpareils.
        [PJC]
  
     5. pl. 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; as, she ate a box of
        nonpareils at the movie.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  nonpareil
       adj : eminent beyond or above comparison; "matchless beauty"; "the
             team's nonpareil center fielder"; "she's one girl in a
             million"; "the one and only Muhammad Ali"; "a peerless
             scholar"; "infamy unmatched in the Western world";
             "wrote with unmatchable clarity"; "unrivaled mastery of
             her art" [syn: {matchless}, {one(a)}, {one and only(a)},
              {peerless}, {unmatched}, {unmatchable}, {unrivaled}, {unrivalled}]
       n 1: model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no
            equal [syn: {ideal}, {paragon}, {saint}, {apotheosis}, {nonesuch},
             {nonsuch}]
       2: colored beads of sugar used as a topping on e.g. candies and
          cookies
       3: a flat disk of chocolate covered with beads of colored sugar

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  60 Moby Thesaurus words for "nonpareil":
     A per se, ace, beau ideal, boss, champion, chief, choice, chosen,
     commander, cream, dean, elect, elite, exemplar, fat, flower,
     fugleman, genius, good example, head, higher-up, ideal, jewel,
     laureate, leader, man of men, master, mirror, model, ne plus ultra,
     nonesuch, optimum, paragon, pattern, phoenix, pick, prime,
     principal, prize, prodigy, queen, quintessence, ruler, select,
     senior, shining example, standard, star, superior, superlative,
     superman, superstar, the best, the best ever, the greatest,
     the most, the tops, the very best, top dog, virtuoso
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  Nonpareil
       
          One of five pedagogical languages based on {Markov
          algorithm}s, used in ["Nonpareil, a Machine Level Machine
          Independent Language for the Study of Semantics", B. Higman,
          ULICS Intl Report No ICSI 170, U London (1968)].  The others
          were {Brilliant}, {Diamond}, {Pearl} and {Ruby}.