continuous

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English

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EnglishWikipediahas an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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FromLatincontinuus,fromcontineō(“hold together”).Displaced nativeOld Englishsingal.

Pronunciation

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  • enPR:kən-tĭnʹyo͞o-əs,IPA(key):/kənˈtɪn.juː.əs/,/-(j)ɪu̯.əs/
  • Audio(US):(file)

Adjective

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continuous(notcomparable)

  1. Without stopping; without abreak,cessation,orinterruption.
    Synonyms:perpetual,nonstop,incessant,ongoing;see alsoThesaurus:continuous
    Antonyms:broken,discontinuous,discrete,intermittent,interrupted
    acontinuouscurrent of electricity
  2. Without intervening space;continued.
    Synonyms:protracted,extended,connected,continued,unbroken
    Antonyms:broken,disconnected,disjoint
    acontinuousline of railroad
    • 2023November 29, Philip Haigh, “New Piccadilly Line trains put to the test”, inRAIL,number997,page26:
      The dynamic tests at Wildenrath usecontinuoustest tracks built on the site of a former Royal Air Force station that was vacated after the end of the Cold War.
  3. (botany)Notdeviatingorvaryingfromuniformity;not interrupted; not joined or articulated.
  4. (mathematical analysis,of afunction)Such that, for everyxin thedomain,for each smallopenintervalDaboutf(x), there's an interval containingxwhoseimageis inD.
  5. (mathematics,more generally,of a function between twotopological spaces)Such that eachopenset in the target space has an openpreimage(in the domain space, with respect to the given function).
    Eachcontinuousfunction from the real line to the rationals is constant, since the rationals are totally disconnected.
  6. (grammar)Expressing an ongoing action or state.

Usage notes

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  • Continuousis stronger thancontinual.It denotes that the continuity or union of parts is absolute and uninterrupted, as in acontinuous sheetof ice, or acontinuous flowof water or of argument. So Daniel Webster speaks of "acontinuousand unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. "By contrast,continualusually marks a close and unbroken succession of things, rather than absolute continuity. Thus we speak ofcontinualshowers, implying a repetition with occasional interruptions; we speak of a person as liable tocontinualcalls, or as subject tocontinualapplications for aid.[1]

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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in mathematics
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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^Paul Brians (2009) “continual”,inCommon Errors in English Usage,2nd edition, Wilsonville, Or.: William, James & Company,→ISBN.
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