infinity

What it means

1. uncountableEndlessness, unlimitedness, absence of a beginning, end or limits to size.

   concept of infinity

   2 more examples

   The desert stretched out toward the horizon as if into infinity.

   Richard Feynman, who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga for this breakthrough, referred to this sleight of hand as “brushing infinity under the rug.”

   2012 January 28, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2013, page 86

2. countablemathematicsA number that has an infinite numerical value that cannot be counted.

   1 more example

   Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.

   2012 January 28, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2013, page 86

   Synonyms: mul:∞

3. countablemathematical analysisAn idealised point which is said to be approached by sequences of values whose magnitudes increase without bound.

In a sentence

concept of infinity

Where it comes from

1. Latinīnfīnitās“unlimitedness”
2. Old Frenchinfinité
3. Middle Englishinfinite
4. Englishinfinity

From Middle English infinite, from Old French infinité, from Latin īnfīnitās (“unlimitedness”), from negative prefix in- (“not”), + fīnis (“end”), + noun of state suffix -tās. By surface analysis, infinite + -ity.