# infinite
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English infinite, from Old French infinit and its etymon Latin īnfīnītus, from in- (“not”) + fīnis (“end”) + the perfect passive participle ending -ītus. By surface analysis, in- +‎ finite. Doublet of infinito. Displaced native Old English unġeendodlīċ.

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/
* (US) IPA: /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/, /ˈɪnfənɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Hyphenation: in‧fi‧nite

### Adjective

infinite (comparative more infinite, superlative most infinite)
* 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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:which infinite calamity shall cause to human life
* 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.
* (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.
* (mathematics) Greater than any positive quantity or magnitude; limitless. [from 17th c.]
* (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.
* (grammar) Not limited by person or number. [from 19th c.]
* (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.

#### Usage notes

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.

#### Antonyms

* finite
* infinitesimal
* limited

#### Hyponyms

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

#### Derived terms

* bi-infinite
* doubly infinite
* infinitate
* infinite canon
* infinite continued fraction
* infinite descent
* infinite hotel paradox
* infinite loop
* infinitely
* infinite monkey theorem
* infinite recursion
* infinite regress
* infinite scroll
* infinite series
* infinitesimal
* infinite suicide
* infinitude
* infinity
* in one's infinite wisdom
* semi-infinite

#### Related terms

* infinitive

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Numeral

infinite
* Infinitely many.

### Noun

infinite (plural infinites)
* 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.
* (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 […]

### References

* ↑ “infī̆nī̆t(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “infinite, adj., adv., and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “infinite (adj.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ 1852, John Weeks Moore, Complete Encyclopædia of Music

## Italian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /in.fiˈni.te/
* Rhymes: -ite
* Hyphenation: in‧fi‧nì‧te

### Adjective

infinite
* feminine plural of infinito

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /in.fiːˈniː.te/, [ĩːfiːˈniːt̪ɛ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /in.fiˈni.te/, [iɱfiˈniːt̪e]

### Adjective

īnfīnīte
* vocative masculine singular of īnfīnītus

### References

* “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.