finity
English
Noun
finity (countable and uncountable, plural finities) (rare)
- (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being limited in number or scope.
- 1874, Hawthorne, Julian, chapter 31, in Idolatry: A Romance:
- He was calm in the conviction that he could measure and calculate the universe […] He matched finity against the Infinite.
- 1899, London, Jack, The White Silence:
- Nature has many tricks wherewith she convinces man of his finity.
- 1987, Fraser, Julius Thomas, Time, the Familiar Stranger, →ISBN, page 37:
- In a very non-Aristotelian fashion, Nicholas of Cusa produced a synthesis of finity and infinity.
- 2006, Witzsche, Rolf A. F., Universal Divine Science: Spiritual Pedagogicals, →ISBN, page 106:
- We […] labor to find our identity in the infinite in spite of our encumberment in finity.
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- (countable) Something which is limited in number or scope.
- 1734, Watts, Isaac, “A Brief Scheme of Ontology”, in Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects, 6th edition, London: T. Longman, T. Fields and C. Dilly, published 1794, page 370:
- Disagreement in substance or essence […] may be called Disproportion, as there is a disproportion between finities and infinities, i.e. there is no proportion between them.
- 1837 September 2, “The Transcendalist's Dialogues: No. IX”, in The Shepherd, volume 3, number 10, page 79:
- If we imagined a person capable of comprehending infinity, we should merely think that he was able infinitely to add up finities.
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Synonyms
- (state or characteristic of being limited): boundedness, finitude, finiteness, limitedness; see also Thesaurus:finity
Antonyms
- (state or characteristic of being limited): infinity, unlimitedness, endlessness; see also Thesaurus:infinity
Translations
References
- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
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