continuum
Americannoun
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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.
It’s also her first album in more than a decade, one that maintains the neo-soul continuum she’s nourished since her multi-platinum 2000 debut, “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1.”
From Salon • Jun. 5, 2026
It restores Douglass to a living continuum of dissent rather than isolating him as an exceptional voice, and it underscores how fully the Fourth of July once accommodated, even invited, fierce moral criticism from within.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
Tamil Nadu has long been attuned to political theatrics, where cinema and power often blur into one continuum.
From BBC • May 5, 2026
Pangram’s latest version now outputs scores on a continuum and is making genuine progress on these gray-zone instances, but those cases remain far less validated than the extremes.
From Slate • Apr. 17, 2026
In 1963 a mathematician, Paul Cohen, proved that this puzzle, the so-called continuum hypothesis, was neither provable nor disprovable, thanks to Gödel’s incompleteness theorem.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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.
