discretenessn.
/dᵻˈskriːtnᵻs/, U.S. /dᵻˈskritnᵻs/ 1. The quality or state of being discontinuous or separate; particularity, individuality.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > continuity or uninterruptedness > discontinuity or interrupted condition > [noun]
solution of continuity1543
discontinuity1570
discontinuation1605
discontiguity1632
discreteness1835
discontinuousness1837
brokenness1842
discretion1848
incontinuity1865
1835 N. Tucker & T. B. Hayward tr. E. Swedenborg Angelic Wisdom conc. Divine Love iii. §185. 85 Causes do not produce effects by continuity, but by discreteness.
1877 E. Caird Crit. Acct. Philos. Kant ii. xvii. 605 We bring together the two moments of unity and diversity..continuity and discreteness.
1893 P. S. Moxom in J. H. Barrow World's Parl. Relig. I. 467 The whole significance of man's existence lies ultimately in its discreteness—in the evolution and persistence of the self-conscious ego.
1979 R. Quirk in C. MacLean Crown & Thistle 59 Both ‘language’ and ‘nation’, despite their formal discreteness as words, are notoriously slippery in meaning.
2007 Philadelphia Inquirer (Nexis) 11 Feb. d4 Ashbery is stricken by the sheer discreteness of things.
2. The quality or state of consisting of many individual parts; compositeness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > state of being composite > [noun]
composition?1541
complication1666
compoundedness1697
complexity1734
compoundness1768
discreteness1862
compositeness1881
1862 H. Spencer First Princ. i. ii. §9. 29 When the size, complexity, or discreteness of the object conceived becomes very great, only a small portion of its attributes can be thought of at once.
1977 Ann. Statistics 5 1056 Why should real data not be expected to be..heterogeneous and exhibiting some discreteness (or granularity)?
2007 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 14 Sept. 24 Grothendieck produced his massive work,..uniting the discreteness of arithmetic and the continuity of geometry.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1835