finity

English

Noun

finity (countable and uncountable, plural finities) (rare)

  1. (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.
  2. (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.
    • 1884 January 1, “Prayer and Science”, in Methodist Quarterly Review (4th), volume 66, page 8:
      And this condescension of infinite Perfection to the finities—to their imperfections, contingencies, and littlenesses—is the very result of its perfection.

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References

  • Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
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