Limit

How to spell limit

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce limit

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does limit mean?

1. nounA point or level beyond which something cannot or may not go.
2. verbTo restrict something within fixed bounds.

Limit in a sentence

• noun

  The speed limit on that road drops to thirty near the school.

• verb

  The new policy will limit overtime to ten hours a week.

• noun

  There is a strict weight limit on checked luggage for this flight.

• verb

  Try to limit your spending while you pay down the loan.

Where does limit come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin limes, with the stem limit-, which literally meant a boundary line, a frontier, or the edge of a marked-out path; Roman surveyors used it for the dividing tracks that ran between plots of land. From that came the related noun limitem and the verb limitare, meaning to mark off or bound. English took the word in during the late 1300s, through Old French limite, first as a noun for a boundary or fixed point that may not be passed, and soon afterwards as a verb meaning to restrict within bounds. The same limes root sits inside the word lintel and surfaces in scientific terms about boundaries and edges. The single l, single m, and single t are the quiet spelling point: writers sometimes hesitate over doubling, but limit keeps every consonant single.

How the word is built

• limit (from Latin limes: boundary, frontier line); no affixes in the modern English form