continuum - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from Latin continuum, neuter form of continuus, from contineō (“contain, enclose”).

• IPA^(key): /kənˈtɪnjuəm/, /-(j)ɪu̯əm/

continuum (plural continuums or continua)

2. A continuous series or whole, no part of which is noticeably different from its adjacent parts, although the ends or extremes of it are very different from each other.

   • 2014, Torkild Thellefsen, Bent Sorensen, Charles Sanders Peirce in His Own Words:

     So, the white line implies Blacklessness and the black background implies Whitelessness – that is, once the white line, a continuum, has emerged from blackness, also a continuum, and the two continua engage in an “inter-penetrative” (Buddhist term) process.

   • 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 11:

     In fact, the influence of signage in a certain area may exist anywhere on a continuum from profoundly effective to utterly trivial or completely insignificant, irrespective of the intent motivating the signs.

3. A continuous extent.

   • 2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3:

     A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.

4. (mathematics) The nondenumerable set of real numbers; more generally, any compact connected metric space.
5. (music) A touch-sensitive strip, similar to an electronic standard musical keyboard, except that the note steps are ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a semitone, and so are not separately marked.

• (set of real numbers): ℝ (translingual)

• continuous

From English continuum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkontinu.um/, [ˈko̞n̪t̪iˌnu.um]
• Rhymes: -u.um
• Hyphenation^(key): con‧ti‧nu‧um

continuum

1. (music) continuum (type of electronic instrument)

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.ti.ny.ɔm/

continuum m (plural continuums)

1. continuum

• continuum dialectal

• “continuum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /konˈti.nu.um/, [kɔn̪ˈt̪ɪnuʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /konˈti.nu.um/, [kon̪ˈt̪iːnuːm]

continuum

1. inflection of continuus:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

• "continuum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Unadapted borrowing from Latin continuum. Doublet of contínuo.

• Hyphenation: con‧ti‧nu‧um

continuum m (plural continuuns or continua)

1. continuum (series where neighbouring elements are very similar, but distant elements are very different)

• contínuo

Borrowed from Latin continuum.

continuum n (plural continuumuri)

1. continuum

• IPA^(key): /konˈtinuum/ [kõn̪ˈt̪i.nu.ũm]
• Rhymes: -inuum
• Syllabification: con‧ti‧nu‧um

continuum m (plural continuums)

1. Alternative form of continuo.

• “continuum”, in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas [Panhispanic Dictionary of Doubts] (in Spanish), 2nd edition, Royal Spanish Academy; Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, 2023, →ISBN