continuous
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
Either via French or directly, from Latin continuus.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
continuous (not comparable)
- Without break, cessation, or interruption; without intervening time.
- a continuous current of electricity
- 1847, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: a tale of Acadie, Ticknor and Fields (1854), page 90:
- he can hear its continuous murmur
- Without intervening space; continued; protracted; extended.
- a continuous line of railroad
- (botany) Not deviating or varying from uniformity; not interrupted; not joined or articulated.
- (analysis, of a function) Such that, for every x in the domain, for each small open interval D about f(x), there's an interval containing x whose image is in D.
- (mathematics, more generally, of a function) Such that each open set in the range has an open preimage.
- Each continuous function from the real line to the rationals is constant, since the rationals are totally disconnected.
- (grammar) Expressing an ongoing action or state.
[edit] Usage notes
- Continuous is stronger than continual. It denotes that the continuity or union of parts is absolute and uninterrupted, as in a continuous sheet of ice, or a continuous flow of water or of argument. So Daniel Webster speaks of "a continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." By contrast, continual usually marks a close and unbroken succession of things, rather than absolute continuity. Thus we speak of continual showers, implying a repetition with occasional interruptions; we speak of a person as liable to continual calls, or as subject to continual applications for aid.[1]
[edit] Synonyms
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in time): constant, continual (but see usage notes above), incessant, never-ending, ongoing, unbroken, unceasing, unending, uninterrupted
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in space): connected, unbroken
- See also Wikisaurus:continuous
[edit] Antonyms
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in time): broken, discontinuous, discrete, intermittent, interrupted
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in space): broken, disconnected, disjoint, unbroken
- (in mathematical analysis): discontinuous, stepwise
[edit] Derived terms
in mathematics
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
without break, cessation, or interruption in time
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without break, cessation, or interruption in space
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in botany
in mathematical analysis
in grammar
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ “continual/continuous”, Brians, Paul Common Errors in English Usage, (2nd Edition, November 17, 2008), William, James & Company, 304 pp., ISBN 978-1-59028207-6
