infinitesimal

Learned borrowing from New Latin īnfīnītēsimus. Displaced earlier coordinate term fluxion.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪnfɪnɪˈtɛsɪməl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsɪməl

infinitesimal (comparative more infinitesimal, superlative most infinitesimal)

1. Incalculably, exceedingly, or immeasurably minute; vanishingly small.

   Do you ever get the feeling that you are but an infinitesimal speck, swallowed by the vastness of the universe and beyond?

   • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "You will conceive a bunch of grapes," said he, "which are covered by some infinitesimal but noxious bacillus."

   • 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 221:

     Then you could say that the doorway exploded. But the particular verb doesn't do the action justice. Rather, it shattered into infinitesimal pieces.

2. (mathematics, not comparable) Of or pertaining to values that approach zero as a limit.
3. (informal) Very small.

• See also Thesaurus:tiny

• infinite
• enormous

infinitesimal (plural infinitesimals)

1. (mathematics) A non-zero quantity whose magnitude is smaller than any positive number (by definition it is not a real number).

• infinity

• infinitesimal calculus
• infinitesimally

• IPA^(key): /infinitesiˈmal/ [ĩɱ.fi.ni.t̪e.siˈmal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: in‧fi‧ni‧te‧si‧mal

infinitesimal m or f (masculine and feminine plural infinitesimales)

1. infinitesimal

• “infinitesimal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024