Continuum

How to spell continuum

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce continuum

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does continuum mean?

1. nounA continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different, although the extremes are quite distinct.

Continuum in a sentence

• Political views sit along a continuum rather than in two fixed camps.

• Physicists describe space and time together as a single continuum.

Where does continuum come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from Latin continuum, the neuter form of the adjective continuus, which meant 'uninterrupted' or 'hanging together'. That adjective was built on the verb continere, 'to hold together', formed from com- 'together' and tenere 'to hold', the same tenere that gives us 'tenant', 'tenacious', and 'retain'. English adopted the word in the seventeenth century, chiefly in scientific and philosophical writing, to name a continuous whole whose parts shade into one another without sharp breaks. The slightly awkward double letter at the end, that 'uum', is simply the original Latin ending preserved intact, which is exactly why writers hesitate over it; the plural, equally Latin, is 'continua'. Remembering that it shares its root with 'continue' helps fix the single 'n' in 'contin-' and the doubled vowel that follows.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• tin- (from tenere: to hold)
• -uum (Latin neuter noun suffix)