infinitesimal
/ˌɪnfɪnɪˈtɛsɪm(ə)l
/adjective
Extremely small: an infinitesimal pause...
- I seek leave to table from the New England Journal of Medicine a recent definitive study showing that intellectual impairment of children can occur even with extremely infinitesimal amounts of lead.
- It was a pause so infinitesimal that I almost didn't catch it, but I knew what I glimpsed.
- Minute, infinitesimal amounts of chemical contaminants crossing the placenta can cause cancer in young adults decades later.
Synonyms
minute, tiny, minuscule, extremely small, very small;
microscopic, nanoscopic, barely perceptible, imperceptible, inappreciable, indiscernible, invisible to the naked eye;
Scottish wee
informal teeny, teeny-weeny, teensy-weensy, eensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy, itty-bitty, tiddly
British informal titchy
North American informal little-bitty
noun Mathematics
An indefinitely small quantity; a value approaching zero.These two concepts, infinitesimals and infinite quantities, however, were stirring great philosophical dilemmas....
- The book shows how this notion can be used to form various kinds of infinities such as the projective plane, transfinite numbers, and infinitesimals.
- Also in 1786 he again worked on his ideas for the differential and integral calculus, giving a new treatment of infinitesimals.
Derivatives
infinitesimally
/ adverb ...- The design of the pipeline means that the risk of such an event or any other type of gas escape is infinitesimally small.
- In fact, leaving aside the infinitesimally small world of math geniuses, there isn't any evidence that men are more intelligent than women, and no one seriously says so.
- At their best they became monolithic tomes - bunkers for content, guides updated haphazardly that infinitesimally accrete ‘content’.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from modern Latin infinitesimus, from Latin infinitus (see infinite), on the pattern of centesimal.