continuum
Americannoun
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continua,
plural
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continuums
plural
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a continuous extent, series, or whole.
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Mathematics.
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a set of elements such that between any two of them there is a third element.
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the set of all real numbers.
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any compact, connected set containing at least two elements.
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noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of continuum
1640–50; < Latin, noun use of neuter of continuus continuous
Explanation
A continuum is something that keeps on going, changing slowly over time, like the continuum of the four seasons. In addition to meaning "a whole made up of many parts," continuum, pronounced "kon-TIN-yoo-um," can describe a range that is always present. For example, in a high school, at any time, there are students who are learning algebra, then advancing to geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. Just as the ninth graders master their particular math, they move on to the next one, as new ninth graders enter the school and the seniors graduate.
Vocabulary lists containing continuum
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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A Mango-Shaped Space
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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.
See Examples For:
Alas, officials on the Big House field huddled with replay officials, who reviewed their feed and discovered there was actually an additional, double-secret second hiding in the space-time continuum.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Her egg-freezing decision is a part of that continuum.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
They also observed that biological materials formed a continuum ranging from well preserved to heavily degraded.
From Science Daily ● May 12, 2026
Tamil Nadu has long been attuned to political theatrics, where cinema and power often blur into one continuum.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
In reality, all of those dates are merely attempts to label arbitrary points along a continuum.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
And the people who are pushing back against the right of trans people to exist are ignoring the science that says that there are continua of features, including behavioral expression and anatomical features.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2020
The doctor mentions several possible diagnoses: new daily persistent headache, migraine with aura, and hemicrania continua, a headache on one side of the head that never ends.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 17, 2016
THE words a luta continua shine in garish orange neon from the artwork in the lobby of South Africa’s Constitutional Court.
From Economist ● Dec. 16, 2015
The time was the late 16th and 17th centuries, and the mathematics in question was the proper understanding of continua — straight lines, plane figures, solids.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2014
Not only do the materials lend themselves under certain circumstances to aesthetic manipulation, but underlying their worst disjointedness are three great continua in which for each of us reason's ideal is actually reached.
From The Will to Believe : and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James
Other cities receive federal funds and have continuums of care.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 14, 2022
The federal government had recommended these continuums of care since 1994, but not until the Hearth Act was funding tied to specific metrics of effectiveness.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 14, 2022
Currently, Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena have their own continuums of care and administer their own homeless counts and services for people on the streets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2022
Back then, they got through the rough patch with Neal proposing, but now they’re right back there again, their time continuums crossing over a rotary-dial phone.
From Slate ● Jul. 9, 2014
For a minute he paused, wondering if there were other continuums or only this one, wondering just how deep the paradox lay.
From An Empty Bottle by Mari Wolf
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.
