Infinitude

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(pronounced in-fin-ih-tood or in-fin-ih-tyood; "oo" pronounced as in "boot" and not as in "book") noun

Definition

1. the state or quality of being infinite or limitless; boundlessness. 2. something that is infinite or incalculably large in quantity, extent, amount, or number.

Main Example

• Thanks to the infinitude of news that is generated each day, even the most sensational headline has a shelf life of just a few hours.

Workplace Examples

• The new VP's speech did not go well. First, it was a bit rambling...she often repeated herself...but the thing that really torpedoed it was this infinitude of "uhs" and "ums," the "you knows" and other speech disfluencies, sometimes several within a single sentence!

• Did you know that New York's official state mammal is the beaver? Surprising isn't it, considering that you are unlikely to encounter one in any of the boroughs of NYC. So, here is a related factoid: In the late 1600s/ early 1700s, there was an infinitude of beavers in the state--something like more than 60 million, before their numbers began to plunge as European settlers starting arriving big-time.

Other Examples

• while talking about the Grand Canyon, this author telling an audience proudly: "Suppose you were to Google something like 'Words to describe the Grand Canyon,' you would most assuredly be served up an infinitude of websites, right? Well, until recently, my 2011 blog post on the subject was item 1 on page 1 of Google. I guess the language I used to describe the Grand Canyon's spiritual pull has touched a nerve on all continents. Here's what I wrote: 'When you look down intently into that vast chasm of overpowering beauty and mystery, you get the sense that Mother Earth has opened her bosom and is whispering: Come, peer into me for this is where you are from.'" (Click here to read that blog post.)
• in his "ode to New Zealand," this author writing about the "infinitude of hills and valleys which are invariably dotted with sheep"; the infinitude of barrels containing DDT waste, dumped decades ago, that lie on the ocean floor just off California's Catalina Island
• the infinitude of smartphone apps--at last count, over seven million across the iOS and Android platforms; the recently launched James Webb Telescope transmitting wondrous images of the infinitude of galaxies that exist in the remotest reaches of the universe
• some tour guides recommending "Pacific Overlook," located in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, as ideal for photographing the infinitude of the Pacific Ocean
• the great American essayist, lecturer, poet, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) once saying: "I have only one doctrine--the infinitude of the private man" (this according to a May-June 2003 article in Harvard Magazine by Lawrence Buell)

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