countless
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
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.
People considering retirement abroad devote countless hours of research to finding the “perfect” place.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Nutrients must reach the places where they are needed, waste products must be transported away, and countless chemical reactions must occur in a liquid environment.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
The strategy worked for countless previous storms but unfortunately not the latest one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Cathy Ames is a complicated symbol, as the countless people who glommed on to Clancy’s case want her to be.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
It floated upward and hovered near the ceiling, then burst into countless sprays of gold that glittered in the air like fireworks.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
