Meanings
comparative more illimitable · superlative most illimitable
- Impervious to limitation, without limit.
Through the sense of touch I know […] the illimitable variety of straight and curved lines,
1908, Helen Keller, chapter 4, in The World I Live In,, New York: The Century Co., page 435 more examples
For although in that ancient and diffuſed adoration of IdolLs, unto the Prieſts and ſubtiler heads, the vvorſhip perhaps might be ſymbolicall, and as thoſe Images ſome vvay related unto their deities, yet vvas the Idolatry direct and dovvne-right in the people, vvhoſe credulity is illimitable, vvho may be made believe that any thing is God, and may be made believe there is no God at all.
1646, Thomas Browne, “Of Credulity and Supinity”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 17The perception of this law of laws awakens in the mind a sentiment which we call the religious sentiment, and which makes our highest happiness. […] This sentiment is divine and deifying. It is the beatitude of man. It makes him illimitable.
1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday evening, 15 July, 1838[…] Arthur with a hundred spears / Rode far, till o'er the illimitable reed, / And many a glancing plash and sallowy isle, / The wide-wing'd sunset of the misty marsh / Glared on a huge machicolated tower […]
1875, Alfred Tennyson, “The Last Tournament”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; VII), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 51The Creator sat upon the throne, thinking. Behind him stretched the illimitable continent of heaven, steeped in a glory of light and color; before him rose the black night of Space, like a wall.
ca. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth [Introduction]What a tremendous affair it was, the world of Homer, with its indeterminate boundaries, vast regions, and immeasurable distances. The Mediterranean and the Euxine were illimitable stretches of ocean waste over which years could be spent in endless wandering.
1909, Jack London, Revolution and Other Essays: The Shrinkage of the PlanetSynonyms: infinite, limitless, unlimited · Antonyms: limitable, limited
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveImpervious to limitation, without limit.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivewithout limits in extent or size or quantity
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Italic*n̥-
- Latinin-
- Middle Englishin-
- Englishil-
- Englishlimitable
- Englishillimitable
Translations
Esperanto senlima
- senlimawithout limits or an end
Hindi अपार
- अपार (apār)without limits or an end
Irish dochuimsithe
- dochuimsithewithout limits or an end
Turkish kısıtlanamaz, engellenemez
- kısıtlanamazimpossible to limit or circumscribe
- engellenemezimpossible to limit or circumscribe
Cite this entry
illimitable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/illimitable
“illimitable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/illimitable. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “illimitable,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/illimitable.
Source: illimitable on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.