countless
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- countlessly adverb
Etymology
Origin of countless
Explanation
Countless means more than you could possibly count. If you have countless reasons why you love living in New York, there are so many reasons that you can't list them all. Countless is a good adjective to use when you want to emphasize how endless, huge, or immeasurable something is. Your could say that smoke detectors save countless lives each year, or that your principal has tried countless times to ban soda at school, only to be outvoted by the student council over and over. The word dates from the 16th century, from the verb count, with its Old French root, conter, "add up."
Vocabulary lists containing countless
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 6
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Studying dense crowds is difficult because individuals can take countless possible paths and interact in unpredictable ways, Liu explained.
From Science Daily • Apr. 15, 2026
For humans to find and exploit a bug like this would typically require countless hours of research.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026
“There are countless examples of this: ‘Pokémon,’ Greek mythology, ‘X-Men.’
From Salon • Apr. 12, 2026
In August of 2024, I walked the Himalayan ranges of Venice with Dennis Hathaway and his wife, Laura Silagi, who had taken a hard fall on one of their neighborhood’s countless volcanic sidewalks.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2026
Across the face of the house are countless windows in white wooden frames.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
