asymptote en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- audio North Carolina
- /ˈeɪ̯sɪmtoʊ̯t/ (Canada, General-American)
- [ˈæsɪmtəʊ̯t] (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈæsɪmptoʊ̯t/ (Canada, General-American)
- /ˈæsɪmtɒt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- audio Multicultural British English
- /ˈæsɪmptəʊ̯t/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- [ˈæsɪmtoʊ̯t] (Canada, General-American)
Etymology
circa 1650, from Ancient Greek ἀσύμπτωτη (asúmptōtē), the feminine of Apollonius Pergaeus' (circa 200 BC) Ancient Greek adjective ἀσύμπτωτος (asúmptōtos, “not falling together”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + συν- (sun-, “together”) + πτωτός (ptōtós, “fallen”). See also a-, syn-, -ote.
Meanings
-
A straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely as it goes to infinity. The limit of the curve; its tangent "at infinity".
The King rushed forward with all his cruel coordinates and mean values, stumbled into a dark forest of roots and logarithms, had to backtrack, then encountered the beast on a field of irrational numbers (F₁) and smote it so grievously that it fell two decimal places and lost an epsilon, but the beast slid around an asymptote and hid in an n-dimensional orthogonal phase space, underwent expansion and came out, fuming factorially, and fell upon the King and hurt him passing sore.
1974, Stanisław Lem, translated by Michael Kandel, The Cyberiad:
-
(broadly, figuratively) Anything which comes near to but never meets something else.
Language, in relation to thought, must ever be regarded as an asymptote.
1860, Frederic William Farrar, An Essay on the Origin of Language, page 117:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| asymptotes | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
asymptotia · asymptotical · asymptotically · asymptotics · asymptotic
Translations (34)
es asíntota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · sv asymptot (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · id asimtot (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · is ósnertill (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · mi rārangi pātata (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · mi tepe whakatata (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · cs asymptota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · pt assíntota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · io asimptoto (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · nl asymptoot (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · bn অসীমতট (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · cy asymptot (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · ms asimptot (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · tr asimptot (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · fr asymptote (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · el ασύμπτωτος (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · pt assímptota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · gl asíntota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · it asintoto (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · pt assintota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · ja 漸近線 (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · ast asíntota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · ca asímptota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · fi asymptootti (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · ro asimptotă (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · eu asintota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · hi अनंतस्पर्शी (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · pt assimptota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · ru асимпто́та (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · de Asymptote (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · hu aszimptota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · he אָסִימְפְּטוֹטָה (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · pl asymptota (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely) · is aðfella (a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely)