American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality or condition of being infinite.
- n. Unbounded space, time, or quantity.
- n. An indefinitely large number or amount.
- n. Mathematics The limit that a function ∫ is said to approach at x = a when ∫(x) is larger than any preassigned number for all x sufficiently near a.
- n. A range in relation to an optical system, such as a camera lens, representing distances great enough that light rays reflected from objects within the range may be regarded as parallel.
- n. A distance setting, as on a camera, beyond which the entire field is in focus.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The condition of being infinite or the greatest possible; immeasurableness; innumerability; perfection: as, the infinity of God; infinity of duration.
- n. Unlimited extension; figuratively, exhaustless quantity or number: as, inconceivable infinity; an infinity of details.
- n. In geometry, the part of space at an infinite distance from the part chiefly considered. Owing to the mechanical properties of the straight line, the most important mode of geometrical transformation is that which transforms every straight line into a straight line, its position only being changed. But this transforms the part of space at infinity into a plane, just as in a perspective view of an unbounded plane the infinitely distant parts are compressed into a line. Hence, mathematicians generally speak of the plane at infinity, or the line at infinity in a plane. In analytical geometry the plane at infinity is best considered as two coincident planes, fastened together at an imaginary nodal circle, and constituting a degenerate sphere, called the sphere at infinity. (See
absolute, n., 2.) In the theory of functions, the most important mode of transformation of the plane is one which preserves the magnitudes of all angles, and this transforms the infinitely distant parts of the plane into a point; hence, in that branch of mathematics, the point at infinity is spoken of.
- n. An infinite number: as, an infinity of straight lines. Its symbol is ∞.
- n. Limitlessness, unlimitedness, something which is growing without limits or bounds.
- n. A number that has an infinite numerical value that cannot be counted.
- n. 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.
- n. The symbol ∞.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Unlimited extent of time, space, or quantity; eternity; boundlessness; immensity.
- n. Unlimited capacity, energy, excellence, or knowledge.
- n. Endless or indefinite number; great multitude; as an
- n. (Math.) A quantity greater than any assignable quantity of the same kind.
- n. (Geom.) That part of a line, or of a plane, or of space, which is infinitely distant. In modern geometry, parallel lines or planes are sometimes treated as lines or planes meeting at infinity.
- n. time without end
- From Latin infinitas ("unlimitedness"), from negative prefix in- ("not"), + finis ("end"), + noun of state suffix -tas. (Wiktionary)
“So what I’m wondering is, does this mean that from the point of view of Schwarzschild coordinates, the object is behaving like a white hole from Schwarzschild time - infinity to 0, and then behaving like a black hole from Schwarzschild time 0 to +infinity?”
“Like the concepts of quantity, limit, boundary, the term infinity applies primarily to space and time, but not exclusively, as”
“While Dad hid in the back of the house all night, I laid awake on the living room couch next to the hospital bed, like summers when I was a kid and used to float on my back in the pool, trying to make sense of stars, and the uneasy feeling I got from the word infinity.”
“Now, with Bernie Madoff, what happened was what you call infinity scam.”
“In mathematics there is what we called infinity and "Design = Infinity".”
“The idea of summing all costs from here to infinity is preposterous, because we simply cannot know what the future will bring.”
“Its limit as time approaches infinity is sclerotic Brezhnevism.”
“All the different stories and opinions gathered together here glance off of one another like a hall of mirrors, but the figure reflected into infinity is that of the woman who continues to define herself more through her relationships than through her work.”
“What gets me about infinity is this: when one states that time or space might not be infinite, I wonder what is to the left of the end of space, or what happened one second before time began?”
“The nature of infinity is this: That every thing has its”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘infinity’.
Obviates the need for other devices or calculations--it will have a button for everything, and it will solve everything.
What a -Y does to an otherwise common, dull word
random scientific terms from a group of one hundred 16-18 year olds to choose 100 words that, in their collective opinion, represent crucial factors and concepts influencing trends in science today...
Concise words to sprinkle in my prose.
Looking for tweets for infinity.