infinitesimal

comparative more infinitesimal · superlative most infinitesimal

1. Incalculably, exceedingly, or immeasurably minute; vanishingly small.

   Do you ever get the feeling that you are but an infinitesimal speck, swallowed by the vastness of the universe and beyond?

   2 more examples

   "You will conceive a bunch of grapes," said he, "which are covered by some infinitesimal but noxious bacillus."

   1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

   Then you could say that the doorway exploded. But the particular verb doesn't do the action justice. Rather, it shattered into infinitesimal pieces.

   2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 221

2. not comparablemathematicsOf or pertaining to non-zero quantities whose magnitude is less than any positive rational number.
3. informalVery small.

plural infinitesimals

1. mathematicsA non-zero quantity whose magnitude is smaller than any positive number (by definition it is not a real number).

   Antonyms: infinity

2. Something infinitesimally small.

   It occurred to the hearer, who was accustomed to glean much of his knowledge from the infinitesimals of tone, that there was a spice of "It is my duty and I will" in this praiseworthy resolve which fell short of the ecstatic resolution of the Saturday Nora.

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London