infinitein‧fi‧nite /ˈɪnfənət/ ●●○ AWL adjective 
a woman of infinite patiencean infinite number/variety of something There was an infinite variety of drinks to choose from.2without limits in space or time OPP finite: The universe is infinite. → in somebody’s (infinite) wisdom at wisdom(4), → non-finite
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- infinite space
- A natural language contains an infinite number of grammatical sentences.
- It's difficult to really imagine an infinite universe.
- One of Keyes' gifts is her infinite patience.
- She was a woman of seemingly infinite patience.
- The variations of color that a human eye can see are infinite.
Longman Language Activatorremaining or continuing forever
continuing forever, for a very long time, or for the rest of your life: · The car accident has caused permanent damage to her eyesight.· Most police departments keep a permanent record of all violent crimes committed in their area.
: eternal life/youth/salvation etc life etc which continues forever: · The possibility of eternal life is a principal belief of many religions.· the search for eternal youth
a word used especially in religious contexts, meaning continuing forever: · life everlasting· the Buddhist's search for everlasting peace
a state or feeling that is perpetual seems to be there all the time and is very annoying, upsetting, worrying etc: · For many working mothers, balancing the demands of children and job is a perpetual challenge.· Her husband's perpetual jealousy strongly affected their marriage.
having no end, or continuing so long that you think it will never end: · To Miguel, the boredom of married life seemed never-ending.· Keeping the house neat and clean is a never-ending battle.
continuing forever and never ending or stopping: · It's difficult to really imagine an infinite universe.· She was a woman of seemingly infinite patience.
when there is no limit something that is unlimited has no fixed limit: · We pay $20 a month for unlimited Internet access.· The ticket is good for unlimited travel on the city's transportation system for 3 days.· At the time of the purchase, the extent of Alaska and its resources must have seemed unlimited.
use this to say that someone can have or do as much of something as they want: there is no limit to/on: · If we work together, there's no limit to what we can achieve.· There's no limit to the number of times you can register to win.
having no limit - used especially in literature: · Taking care of small children is a job that requires boundless energy.· They felt lost and alone on the vast, boundless sea.
something that is infinite has no limit and no end, or does not have one that you can easily see - used especially in scientific contexts: · The variations of color that a human eye can see are infinite.· infinite space· A natural language contains an infinite number of grammatical sentences.
if you say the sky's the limit , you mean that there is no upper limit on something such as the amount of money you can spend or on the success that you can have: · Pick out whatever you want - the sky's the limit.· We try to make our engineers feel that the sky's the limit when it comes to what they can design.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY There was an infinite variety of drinks to choose from.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
There was an infinite variety of drinks to choose from. (=the quality of mercy that God has, which never ends)· He expressed his thanks for the infinite mercy of God in helping him escape from his own sinful life.
· She was lucky to have a maths teacher with infinite patience.
· There is a seemingly infinite variety of beers to choose from.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Just as PageMaker provides almost infinite control over each element of each page so Ventura looks after the complete document.· It is clear, as Chomsky ceaselessly points out, that language competence enables almost infinite variations in language performance.· Each fender is designed to fit the customer's fireplace and there is an almost infinite combination of styles and materials available.· Thus the number of possible scenarios for the life, evolution and disappearance of musical instruments is almost infinite.· The types of finance are almost infinite.· But those rules can take an almost infinite variety of forms.· The insect body has produced an almost infinite variety of forms.
NOUN· But, between any moment of proper time and the c-boundary, an infinite amount of information-processing is possible.· Anyone could make an infinite amount of money in such a world.· An infinite amount of information-processing allows an infinite amount of life and thought, and thus an infinite amount of subjective time.· Our use of an infinitary rule, which requires an apparently infinite amount of work to verify its preconditions, appears undesirable.· An infinite amount of information-processing allows an infinite amount of life and thought, and thus an infinite amount of subjective time.· Gravitational collapse releases energy; and collapse to a single, dimensionless point releases an infinite amount of it.· The high frequency vibrations were so highly favoured that an infinite amount of energy would be present in them.
· He slammed the door shut, then with infinite care proceeded to lay Kirsty on the back seat.· With infinite care, Induk slides her arms around my back, cradling me into her heat.· Slowly, with infinite care, Rourke reached up and untwined the tight band of her fingers from around the heavy ornament.
· Would it collapse to infinite density?· The universe might then have re-expanded without going through a state of infinite density.· The work that Penrose and I did showed that they would continue to collapse until they reached a singularity of infinite density.
· But the estimates could be wrecked by the infinite number of remaining terms.· In principle, the question involves knowing what happens after an infinite number of terms of the sequence!· There would be an infinite number of finite remainders that were not determined by the theory.· Smalltalk could potentially offer an infinite number of scenarios, each of them a new world with windows opening into the informationscape.· Such a theory would have no predictive power because one could never measure all the infinite number of parameters.· Every window into the divine has its own angle and there is an infinite number of angles.· This stage game is repeated a finite or an infinite number of times, then play ends.· A bird in the hand is never worth an infinite number of birds in the bush.
· Then he gently eased her arms down, and with infinite patience began to stroke her nightdress from her body.· A man possessed of infinite patience.· A really good listener who has infinite patience.
· Also, when considering development, it must be stressed that we do not have to depend on an infinite regress.
· Our past experience might suggest that there is an infinite sequence of layers of structure at higher and higher energies.· Possibility 2 would amount to a picture of an infinite sequence of structures at higher and higher energies.
· This hypothesis generates an infinite set of indifference curves which are convex to the L axis.· There are certainly infinitely many different infinite sets, so I is itself infinite.· The changes that they underwent are an infinite set of variations on a relatively limited number of themes.· Perhaps the reader has indeed got the impression by now that all infinite sets are countable.
· And Earth is not just another planet whirling around the sun on its endless journey through infinite space.
· At a given moment finite time came into existence out of infinite time.· Working with organizations, or working to help people get organizations started, requires infinite time and patience.· It goes through a cycle of changes until it finally returns to its original state and then merges into infinite time.· Thus, they may be thought of as sources of financing with an infinite time horizon.· Given infinite time, or infinite opportunities, anything is possible.· As the infinite time horizon case is simpler to treat we begin with this.
· This should remind of you of the infinite varieties in any one colour and also set you thinking about texture.· The universe offers no such categories or simplifications; only flux and infinite variety.· The sun on its endless tour round and round the sky gives shadows and hues of infinite variety.· It is impossible to describe the infinite variety of hysterical gaits.· Ready to yield up its infinite variety.· The infinite variety of questions and possible answers, of course, account for the diversity within the subgenre.· Aristotle would then be saying that the infinite variety of size of Democritean atoms was all below the threshold of perception.· They are available in infinite variety.
· What will the infinite wisdom of the universe do with itself as it rushes towards that point?
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- The board, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to give Waters back his job.
- King, in his finite wisdom, figured out that three fights would make more money than one.
- My daughter, the poet, says Sofia was the goddess in charge of wisdom long ago.
- Nothing is more completely accepted in the conventional wisdom than the cliche that economic life is endlessly and inherently uncertain.
- The Government had in its wisdom decided on the former - hence the Black and Tans.
- The Guardian, in its wisdom, plucks out of the blue a figure of £200 million.
- There will be many a swing in both conventional wisdom and political fortunes between now and November.
- These attitudes have persisted in the conventional wisdom.
WORD FAMILYadjectivefinite ≠ infinite
1very great in amount or degree: a woman of infinite patiencean infinite number/variety of something There was an infinite variety of drinks to choose from.2without limits in space or time OPP finite: The universe is infinite. → in somebody’s (infinite) wisdom at wisdom(4), → non-finite