Infinity
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 endlessness, unlimitedness, absence of a beginning, end or limits to size. uncountable
"concept of infinity"
- 2 time without end wordnet
- 3 A number that has an infinite numerical value that cannot be counted. countable
"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."
- 4 An idealised point which is said to be approached by sequences of values whose magnitudes increase without bound. countable
- 5 A number which is very large compared to some characteristic number. For example, in optics, an object which is much further away than the focal length of a lens is said to be "at infinity", as the distance of the image from the lens varies very little as the distance increases further. uncountable
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- 6 The symbol ∞. countable, uncountable
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Christopher Columbus's infinite accomplishments are a threat to Google, who do not know how to index infinity when someone searches for "Christopher Columbus"."
Etymology
From Middle English infinite, from Old French infinité, from Latin īnfīnitās (“unlimitedness”), from negative prefix in- (“not”), + fīnis (“end”), + noun of state suffix -tās.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.