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English
Etymology
From Latin continuus, from continere (“to hold together”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
continuous (not comparable)
- Without break, cessation, or interruption; without intervening time.
- a continuous current of electricity
- 1847, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: a tale of Acadie, Ticknor and Fields (1854), page 90:
- he can hear its continuous murmur
- Without intervening space; continued; protracted; extended.
- a continuous line of railroad
- (botany) Not deviating or varying from uniformity; not interrupted; not joined or articulated.
- (analysis, of a function) Such that, for every x in the domain, for each small open interval D about f(x), there's an interval containing x whose image is in D.
- (mathematics, more generally, of a function) Such that each open set in the range has an open preimage.
- Each continuous function from the real line to the rationals is constant, since the rationals are totally disconnected.
- (grammar) Expressing an ongoing action or state.
Usage notes
- Continuous is the stronger word, and denotes that the continuity or union of parts is absolute and uninterrupted; as, a continuous sheet of ice; a continuous flow of water or of argument. So Daniel Webster speaks of "a continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England."
- Continual, in most cases, marks a close and unbroken succession of things, rather than absolute continuity. Thus we speak of continual showers, implying a repetition with occasional interruptions; we speak of a person as liable to continual calls, or as subject to continual applications for aid, etc.
Synonyms
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in time): constant, continual (but see usage notes above), incessant, never-ending, ongoing, unbroken, unceasing, unending, uninterrupted
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in space): connected, unbroken
- See also Wikisaurus:continuous
Antonyms
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in time): broken, discontinuous, discrete, intermittent, interrupted
- (without break, cessation, or interruption in space): broken, disconnected, disjoint, unbroken
- (in mathematical analysis): discontinuous, stepwise
Derived terms
- continuous brake
- continuous impost
- continuously
- continuousness
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See also
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