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# limit definition

### Overview

This page has 22 definitions of limit with English translations in 5 languages. Limit is a noun, an adjective and verb. Examples of how to use limit in a sentence are shown. Also define these 37 related words and terms: mathematics, sequence, converge, upper limit, lower limit, category theory, cone, diagram, factor through, inverse limit, terminal object, categorical product, pullback, equalizer, identity morphism, poker, fixed limit, final, utmost, furthest, point, logic, metaphysics, cycling, handicap, exasperating, intolerable, astounding, beg, exercise, function, limit, boundary, frequency, closeness, compactness, and density.

See also: Limit and límit

## English limit definition

### Pronunciation

• IPA(key): /ˈlɪmɪt/
• (India) IPA(key): /ˈlɪmɪt/, /ˈlɪmt/
•  Audio (US) (file)
• Rhymes: -ɪmɪt

### Etymology 1

From Middle English limit, from Old French limit, from Latin līmes (a cross-path or balk between fields, hence a boundary, boundary line or wall, any path or road, border, limit).

#### Noun

limit (plural limits)

1. A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.
There are several existing limits to executive power.
Two drinks is my limit tonight.
• 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, chapter 21:
It is the conductor which communicates to the inhabitants of regions beyond its limit []
• 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, episode 17:
Ever he would wander, selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets, astronomical waifs and strays, to the extreme boundary of space []
• 2012 March 6, Dan McCrum, Nicole Bullock and Guy Chazan, Financial Times, “Utility buyout loses power in shale gas revolution”:
At the time, there seemed to be no limit to the size of ever-larger private equity deals, with banks falling over each other to arrange financing on generous terms and to invest money from their own private equity arms.
2. (mathematics) A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge).
The sequence of reciprocals has zero as its limit.
• ##### Sequence definition
A set of things next to each other in a set order; a series (1 of 8 sequence definitions)
• ##### Converge definition
Of two or more entities, to approach each other; to get closer and closer. (1 of 3 converge definitions)
• ##### Upper Limit definition
The upper limit of a sequence of real numbers is the real number which can be found as follows: remove the first term of the sequence in order to obtain the "first subsequence." Then remove the first term of the first subsequence in order to obtain the "second subsequence." Repeat the removal of first terms in order to obtain a "third subsequence," "fourth subsequence," etc. Find the supremum of each of these subsequences, then find the infimum of all of these supremums. This infimum is the upper limit.
• ##### Lower Limit definition
The lower limit of a sequence of real numbers is the real number which can be found as follows: remove the first term of the sequence in order to obtain the "first subsequence." Then remove the first term of the first subsequence in order to obtain the "second subsequence." Repeat the removal of first terms in order to obtain a "third subsequence," "fourth subsequence," etc. Find the infimum of each of these subsequences, then find the supremum of all of these infimums. This supremum is the lower limit.
3. (mathematics) Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit.
Category theory defines a very general concept of limit.
4. (category theory) The cone of a diagram through which any other cone of that same diagram can factor uniquely.
Synonyms: inverse limit, projective limit
• ##### Category Theory definition
A branch of mathematics which deals with spaces and maps between them in abstraction, taking similar theorems from various disparate more concrete branches of mathematics and unifying them.
• ##### Factor Through definition
Said of a morphism: to be equal to a composition of two morphisms, one of which is the given morphism (that is being said to be "factored through").
• ##### Inverse Limit definition
A subset of the Cartesian product of all the members of an inverse system, such that a member M of the subset is a sort of “cross section” of the inverse system (as fiber bundle) induced by the morphisms of it. (If ${\displaystyle i\leq j}$ in the indexing poset then ${\displaystyle f_{ij}:A_{j}\rightarrow A_{i}}$ in the inverse system and if ${\displaystyle a_{i}\in A_{i}}$ , ${\displaystyle a_{j}\in A_{j}}$ are components of M then ${\displaystyle f_{ij}(a_{j})=a_{i}}$ ). (1 of 2 inverse limit definitions)
• ##### Terminal Object definition
An object within a category which receives arrows from all other objects in that category, and such that each of these arrows is unique.
• ##### Categorical Product definition
The limit of two (or more) objects, considered without regard to any arrows between them.
• ##### Identity Morphism definition
A unique morphism corresponding to each object of a category, which has its domain equal to its codomain, and which composed with any morphism (with which it is composable) gives that same morphism.
5. (poker) Fixed limit.
• ##### Fixed Limit definition
A form of poker game where bets and raises can only be a single size as specified by the rules.
6. The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge.
the limit of a walk, of a town, or of a country
7. (obsolete) The space or thing defined by limits.
8. (obsolete) That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent.
9. (obsolete) A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance.
10. () A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic.
logical
• ##### Metaphysics definition
The branch of philosophy which studies fundamental principles intended to describe or explain all that is, and which are not themselves explained by anything more fundamental; the study of first principles; the study of being insofar as it is being (ens in quantum ens). (1 of 6 metaphysics definitions)
11. (cycling) The first group of riders to depart in a handicap race.
• ##### Handicap definition
Something that prevents, hampers, or hinders. (1 of 5 handicap definitions)
12. (colloquial, as "the limit") A person who is exasperating, intolerable, astounding, etc.
• 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 63:
Englehorn looked at his employer in incredulous admiration. ‘You’re the limit,’ he declared.

#### Adjective

limit (not comparable)

1. (poker) Being a fixed limit game.

### Etymology 2

From Middle English limiten, from Old French limiter, from Latin līmitō (to bound, limit, fix, determine), from līmes; see noun.

#### Verb

limit (third-person singular simple present limits, present participle limiting, simple past and past participle limited)

1. (transitive) To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound, to set boundaries.
We need to limit the power of the executive.
I'm limiting myself to two drinks tonight.
• 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
[The Chinese government] has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.
2. () To have a limit in a particular set.
The sequence limits on the point a.
3. (obsolete) To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.
a limiting friar
• ##### Function definition
What something does or is used for. (1 of 10 function definitions)

## Czech limit definition

### Pronunciation

• IPA(key): [ˈlɪmɪt]
•  audio (file)

limit m

1. limit

### Further reading

• limit in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• limit in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

## Hungarian limit definition

### Etymology

From English limit.[1]

### Pronunciation

• IPA(key): [ˈlimit]
• Hyphenation: li‧mit
• Rhymes: -it

### Noun

limit (plural limitek)

1. limit (the final, utmost, or furthest point)
• ##### Limit definition
A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go. (1 of 12 limit definitions)

#### Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative limit limitek
accusative limitet limiteket
dative limitnek limiteknek
instrumental limittel limitekkel
causal-final limitért limitekért
translative limitté limitekké
terminative limitig limitekig
essive-formal limitként limitekként
essive-modal
inessive limitben limitekben
superessive limiten limiteken
adessive limitnél limiteknél
illative limitbe limitekbe
sublative limitre limitekre
allative limithez limitekhez
elative limitből limitekből
delative limitről limitekről
ablative limittől limitektől
non-attributive
possessive - singular
limité limiteké
non-attributive
possessive - plural
limitéi limitekéi
Possessive forms of limit
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. limitem limitjeim
2nd person sing. limited limitjeid
3rd person sing. limitje limitjei
1st person plural limitünk limitjeink
2nd person plural limitetek limitjeitek
3rd person plural limitjük limitjeik

### References

1. ^ Tótfalusi, István. Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára (’A Storehouse of Foreign Words: an explanatory and etymological dictionary of foreign words’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2005. →ISBN

## Serbo-Croatian limit definition

### Etymology

From German Limit.

### Noun

lìmit m (Cyrillic spelling лѝмит)

1. boundary
2. boundary that cannot be surpassed

## Tagalog limit definition

### Noun

limit

1. frequency
2. closeness; compactness; density
• ##### Compactness definition
the state of being compact

• kalimitan