• (British) IPA: /nɒnpəˈɹeɪl/, /ˈnɒnp(ə)ɹəl/, /ˈnɒnpəɹl/, /ˈnɒmp(ə)ɹəl/
• (America) IPA: /nɑnpəˈɹɛl/

nonpareil

1. Unequalled, unrivalled; unique. [from 15th c.]
   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, Abacus 2013, p. 33:

     quote en

nonpareil

1. A person or thing that has no equal; a paragon. [from 16th c.]
   • c.1599-1601, William Shakespeare, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090926111443/http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/2ws2810.txt Twelfth Night; or, What You Will],

     quote en

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗, partition III, section 2, member 2, subsection 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.

   • 1901 - Edmund Selous, Bird Watching, p. 240

     (a wren) crept or crawled, just like a true tree-creeper. I was, as I say, quite close, and watched it most attentively. It certainly—as far as good looking can settle it—did not assist itself with the wings. They remained close against the sides, or, if they moved at all, it was imperceptible to my eyes (which, by the way, are non-pareils).

2. (cooking, US) A small pellet of colored sugar used as decoration on baked goods and candy.

   Synonyms: hundreds and thousands (UK), sprinkles (US)

3. A small, flat chocolate drop covered with white pellets of sugar, similar to a comfit.
4. A smaller grade of caper.
5. (uncountable, dated, printing) The size of type between agate and minion, standardized as 6-point.

   Synonyms: nonpareille (Continental contexts)

   • 1881 May 19, Hermann Cohn, Eyes and School-Books, in Popular Science Monthly,

     quote en

• French: sans pareil, nonpareil, sans égal, hors de pair
• German: unerreicht
• Italian: impareggiabile, ineguagliabile
• Portuguese: incomparável, sem par, sem igual
• Spanish: incomparable, sin paralelo, sin par

• French: nonpareille
• German: Nonpareille
• Italian: nompariglia
• Spanish: nompareille