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Or in other words, is there an adjective meaning something "has never been repeated after the first instance"?

ODO defines unprecedented as "never done or known before".

For example, in the following sentence, is there an adjective I can use in place of "never again made" so to change it to "through 'xyz' efforts"?

The plot of “A Report to an Academy” is that an ape having shed his simian nature transforms into a human through speech and reaches the position he is at now by attaining the refinement of an average European through efforts never again made on earth.

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  • I don't think there's a word for this, mostly because it's not something you can every know for sure. The future is infinite, how do you know nobody will ever again do whatever it is?
    – Martha
    May 30, 2013 at 13:57
  • @Martha He is asking for a word meaning "has never been repeated after the first instance." That doesn't mean that it will never be repeated after today. Just that it hasn't been repeated so far.
    – Daniel
    May 30, 2013 at 14:04
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    But the future is not infinite. Haven't you heard? The universe is going to end on 21 December 2012. Oh, wait ...
    – Jay
    May 30, 2013 at 15:34
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    Do keep up, @Jay! (apparently they made a mistake in the math, and it's now expected to end 21 December 2013 :)
    – FumbleFingers
    May 30, 2013 at 15:58
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    The reminds me of a humorous definition I saw some years ago: Vujà dé: The feeling that nothing like this has ever happened to anyone ever before, and never will again <compare Déjà vu>.
    – J.R. ♦
    May 31, 2013 at 2:42

4 Answers 4

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You could say "unrepeated efforts." I'm not sure that there is a better word than that.

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  • The only "better" word that comes to mind is unrepeatable - depending on whether the thing is inherently a "one-off" or just happens to have been unrepeated at the time of describing it thus.
    – FumbleFingers
    May 30, 2013 at 15:51
  • @FumbleFingers I think that the question is looking for unrepeated rather than unrepeatable. But that is another possibility.
    – Daniel
    May 30, 2013 at 16:11
  • Well, OP's actual example is fantasy anyway. I know A Report to an Academy is just a story, but in the real world such a thing couldn't happen once, let alone maybe again in the future.
    – FumbleFingers
    May 30, 2013 at 16:21
  • @FumbleFingers Agreed :) I was just saying that because I think "unrepeated" is a better substitute for "never again happened" than "unrepeatable" is.
    – Daniel
    May 30, 2013 at 16:22
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How about "last" or "final"? "It was the last time any one did that" or "This was the final battle in the war".

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Unduplicated / unduplicatable or unique / one-of-a-kind could go in there, I think.

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  • Unique and one-of-a-kind imply both unprecedented and not repeated.
    – The Photon
    Jun 5, 2013 at 5:12
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I would use one of the following:

  • Never duplicated.

  • Never yet duplicated.

  • Never seen again.

  • Never yet seen again.

  • Never repeated

"...through efforts never again witnessed on the Earth."

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