Infinitely

How to spell infinitely

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce infinitely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does infinitely mean?

1. adverbTo an extremely great or limitless degree; without any bound or limit.

Infinitely in a sentence

• The new software is infinitely faster than the old version.

• She found the quiet cottage infinitely more relaxing than the city flat.

Where does infinitely come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin infinitus, which combined the negative prefix in- meaning 'not' with finitus, meaning 'limited' or 'finished'. That second part grew from finis, the Latin noun for an 'end' or 'boundary', the same root that gives us 'finish', 'final', and 'definite'. So at its heart the word literally describes something 'without a boundary' or 'without an end'. English took in the adjective 'infinite' through Old French in the 1300s, and the adverb 'infinitely' followed soon after by adding the ordinary -ly ending. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the two unstressed vowels in fin-i-te-ly both soften to a faint schwa in speech, so writers easily drop or swap a vowel, even though the syllables are perfectly regular once you remember the root finis.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• fin (from finis: end, boundary)
• -ite (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)