What's the difference between nonesuch and nonpareil?
Nonesuch
Definition:
(n.) A person or thing of a sort that there is no other such; something extraordinary; a thing that has not its equal. It is given as a name to various objects, as to a choice variety of apple, a species of medic (Medicago lupulina), a variety of pottery clay, etc.
Example Sentences:
(1) This week, Reich and his musicians performed three nights of concerts with the Philip Glass Ensemble at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, at a festival in honor of the 50 th anniversary of Nonesuch Records.
(2) Jonny Greenwood's album with Krzysztof Penderecki is released on Nonesuch on 12 March.
Nonpareil
Definition:
(a.) Something of unequaled excellence; a peerless thing or person; a nonesuch; -- often used as a name.
(a.) A size of type next smaller than minion and next larger than agate (or ruby).
(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 finch.
(a.) Any other similar bird of the same genus.
(a.) Having no equal; peerless.
Example Sentences:
(1) After meeting him, I don't feel I'm any closer to understanding how anything in Brian Wilson's world works or worked – not the astonishing, nonpareil burst of 60s creativity, not his latterday renaissance – but I can't think of anything else to ask, or at least I can't think of anything that won't just elicit a yes or a no.
(2) After Ali’s final fight, Hugh McIlvanney, the nonpareil of boxing correspondents, described him as “the king who went out on a dustcart”.
(4) For another, I’m a journalist, and thus aware that among Prince’s panoply of talents lies a nonpareil ability to screw with journalists.
(5) He was a nonpareil orchestrator of outrage during their early career, but proved incapable of dealing with its consequences.
(6) (“Among Prince’s panoply of talents lies a nonpareil ability to screw with journalists,” Petridis wrote at the time.)
(7) Immediate-release granules (IRGs) were prepared by coating particles of Nonpareil 103 with bermoprofen.
(8) Commercially available lattices are often used to coat nonpareils or beads.
(9) Sentimentalists are already building barricades against the notion that Klose, an unspectacular penalty-box finisher, could leave South Africa as the nonpareil of strikers.