infinite

From Middle English infinite, from Old French infinit and Latin infīnītus, from in- (“not”) + fīnis (“end”) + the perfect passive participle ending -itus. Doublet of infinito. Displaced native Old English unġeendodlīċ.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/, /ˈɪnfənɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧fi‧nite

infinite (comparative more infinite, superlative most infinite)

1. Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense. [from 14th c.]

   Synonyms: immeasurable, inestimable, vast

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     The number is so infinite, that verily it would be an easier matter for me to reckon up those that have feared the same.

   • 1735, Henry Brooke, Universal Beauty:

     Whatever is finite, as finite, will admit of no comparative relation with infinity; for whatever is less than infinite is still infinitely distant from infinity; and lower than infinite distance the lowest or least cannot sink.

   • c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     infinite riches in a little room

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     which infinite calamity shall cause to human life

2. Boundless, endless, without end or limits; innumerable. [from 15th c.]

   Synonyms: amaranthine, boundless, endless, interminable, limitless, unbounded, unending, unlimited; see also Thesaurus:infinite, Thesaurus:eternal

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 147:5:

     Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite.

3. (with plural noun) Infinitely many. [from 15th c.]

   Synonyms: countless; see also Thesaurus:innumerable

   • 2012, Helen Donelan, Karen Kear, Magnus Ramage, Online Communication and Collaboration: A Reader:

     Huxley's theory says that if you provide infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters, some monkey somewhere will eventually create a masterpiece – a play by Shakespeare, a Platonic dialogue, or an economic treatise by Adam Smith.

4. (mathematics) Greater than any positive quantity or magnitude; limitless. [from 17th c.]
5. (set theory, of a set) Having infinitely many elements.
   • 2009, Brandon C. Look, “Symbolic Logic II, Lecture 2: Set Theory”, in www.uky.edu/~look‎, archived from the original on 19 June 2018:

     For any infinite set, there is a 1-1 correspondence between it and at least one of its proper subsets. For example, there is a 1-1 correspondence between the set of natural numbers and the set of squares of natural numbers, which is a proper subset of the set of natural numbers.

6. (grammar) Not limited by person or number. [from 19th c.]
7. (music) Capable of endless repetition; said of certain forms of the canon, also called perpetual fugues, constructed so that their ends lead to their beginnings.[1]

Although the term is incomparable in the precise sense, it can be comparable both in mathematics and set theory to compare different degrees of infinity, and informally to denote yet a larger thing.

Poets (and particularly hymn-writers before the 20th century) would commonly rhyme the word as though pronounced [-ɑɪnɑɪt] and church congregations still on occasion adopt that pronunciation.

• finite
• infinitesimal
• limited

• (set theory): countably infinite
• (set theory): uncountable

• infinitive

infinite

1. Infinitely many.

infinite (plural infinites)

1. Something that is infinite in nature.
   • 1827–1879 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “Part I”, in The Lover’s Tale, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1879, →OCLC, pages 34–35:

     Sooner Earth / Might go round Heaven, and the strait girth of Time / Inswathe the fulness of Eternity, / Than language grasp the infinite of Love.

   • 2004, Teun Koetsier, Luc Bergmans, Mathematics and the Divine: A Historical Study, page 449:

     Cautiously, Hobbes avoided asserting the equality of these infinites, and explicitly characterized the relation between them as non-inequality.

2. (video games) A combo that can be used repeatedly without interruption.
   • 2007, Adam Deats, Joe Epstein, Virtua Fighter 5, page 14:

     […] prevents overpowered combos and infinites […]

• IPA^(key): /in.fiˈni.te/
• Rhymes: -ite
• Hyphenation: in‧fi‧nì‧te

infinite

1. feminine plural of infinito

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /in.fiːˈniː.te/, [ĩːfiːˈniːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /in.fiˈni.te/, [iɱfiˈniːt̪e]

īnfīnīte

1. vocative masculine singular of īnfīnītus

• “infinite”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “infinite”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• infinite in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.