Word of the Day

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FRIDAY, MARCH 20

Infinitesimal

[in-fin-ih-TIS-ə-məl]Part of speech: adjective

Origin: latin, mid-17th century

• Extremely small.
• Too small to be measured.

Examples of Infinitesimal in a sentence

• The weatherman said there's an infinitesimal chance it will rain today, but I'm still taking my jacket.
• Infinitesimal traces of chicken fell on the floor, but my dog immediately smelled them.

About Infinitesimal

As an adjective, infinitesimal means incredibly small — or in a technical sense, too small to be measured by standard means. But it can also be used as a noun to describe an amount. In this sense it’s mostly used by mathematicians, as the concept that a number or quantity can be divided endlessly into smaller fractions, or infinitesimals.

Did you Know?

You might recognize the word infinite at the start of this long word, but it’s not used to refer to endlessly long numbers. Instead, infinitesimal is a description of very small size. There may be an infinite number of fish in the ocean, but a single speck of plankton is infinitesimal.