What is "limit"

Limit \Lim"it\, v. i. To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region; as, a limiting friar. [Obs.]

Limit \Lim"it\ (l[i^]m"[i^]t), n. [From L. limes, limitis: cf. F. limite; -or from E. limit, v. See Limit, v. t.]

1. That which terminates, circumscribes, restrains, or confines; the bound, border, or edge; the utmost extent; as, the limit of a walk, of a town, of a country; the limits of human knowledge or endeavor.

   As eager of the chase, the maid Beyond the forest's verdant limits strayed.
   --Pope.

2. The space or thing defined by limits.

   The archdeacon hath divided it Into three limits very equally.
   --Shak.

3. That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent.

   The dateless limit of thy dear exile.
   --Shak.

   The limit of your lives is out.
   --Shak.

4. A restriction; a check; a curb; a hindrance.

   I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.
   --Shak.

5. (Logic & Metaph.) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic; a differentia.

6. (Math.) A determinate quantity, to which a variable one continually approaches, and may differ from it by less than any given difference, but to which, under the law of variation, the variable can never become exactly equivalent.

   Elastic limit. See under Elastic.

   Prison limits, a definite, extent of space in or around a prison, within which a prisoner has liberty to go and come.

   Syn: Boundary; border; edge; termination; restriction; bound; confine.

Limit \Lim"it\ (l[i^]m"[i^]t), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Limited; p. pr. & vb. n. Limiting.] [F. limiter, L. limitare, fr. limes, limitis, limit; prob. akin to limen threshold, E. eliminate; cf. L. limus sidelong.] To apply a limit to, or set a limit for; to terminate, circumscribe, or restrict, by a limit or limits; as, to limit the acreage of a crop; to limit the issue of paper money; to limit one's ambitions or aspirations; to limit the meaning of a word.

Limiting parallels (Astron.), those parallels of latitude between which only an occultation of a star or planet by the moon, in a given case, can occur.

c.1400, "boundary, frontier," from Old French limite "a boundary," from Latin limitem (nominative limes) "a boundary, limit, border, embankment between fields," related to limen "threshold." Originally of territory; general sense from early 15c. Colloquial sense of "the very extreme, the greatest degree imaginable" is from 1904.

late 14c., from Old French limiter "mark (a boundary), restrict; specify," from Latin limitare "to bound, limit, fix," from limes "boundary, limit" (see limit (n.)). Related: limited; limiting.

Etymology 1

1. (context poker English) Being a fixed limit game. n. 1 A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go. 2 (context mathematics English) A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge). 3 (context mathematics English) Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit. 4 (context category theory English) Given diagram ''F'' : ''J'' → ''C'', a cone (''L'', ''φ'') from ''L'' ∈ Ob(''C'') to ''F'' is the ''limit'' of ''F'' if it has the universal property that for any other cone (''N'', ''ψ'') from ''N'' ∈ Ob(''C'') to ''F'' there is a unique morphism ''u'' : ''N'' → ''L'' such that for all ''X'' ∈ Ob(''J''), $phi\_X\; circ\; u\; =\; psi\_X$. 5 (context poker English) Short for fixed limit. 6 The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge. 7 (context obsolete English) The space or thing defined by limits. 8 (context obsolete English) That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent. 9 (context obsolete English) A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance. 10 (context logic metaphysics English) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic. Etymology 2

   v

2. 1 (context transitive English) To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound. 2 (context mathematics intransitive English) To have a limit in a particular set. 3 (context obsolete English) To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.

1. v. place limits on (extent or access); "restrict the use of this parking lot"; "limit the time you can spend with your friends" [syn: restrict, restrain, trammel, bound, confine, throttle]

2. restrict or confine, "I limit you to two visits to the pub a day" [syn: circumscribe, confine]

3. decide upon or fix definitely; "fix the variables"; "specify the parameters" [syn: specify, set, determine, fix]

1. n. the greatest possible degree of something; "what he did was beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior"; "to the limit of his ability" [syn: bounds, boundary]

2. final or latest limiting point [syn: terminus ad quem, terminal point]

3. the boundary of a specific area [syn: demarcation, demarcation line]

4. as far as something can go

5. the mathematical value toward which a function goes as the independent variable approaches infinity [syn: limit point, point of accumulation]

6. the greatest amount of something that is possible or allowed; "there are limits on the amount you can bet"; "it is growing rapidly with no limitation in sight" [syn: limitation]

Limit may refer to:

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Keiko Suenobu.

Limit, Is a steel roller coaster located at Heide Park, Germany. It opened in 1999 and is a standard 689m layout Suspended Looping Coaster manufactured by Vekoma. The colour scheme of the ride is a white track and olive green supports. It is located in the 'Transilvania' section of the park.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, the abstract notion of a limit captures the essential properties of universal constructions such as products, pullbacks and inverse limits. The dual notion of a colimit generalizes constructions such as disjoint unions, direct sums, coproducts, pushouts and direct limits.

Limits and colimits, like the strongly related notions of universal properties and adjoint functors, exist at a high level of abstraction. In order to understand them, it is helpful to first study the specific examples these concepts are meant to generalize.

In music theory, limit or harmonic limit is a way of characterizing the harmony found in a piece or genre of music, or the harmonies that can be made using a particular scale. The term limit was introduced by Harry Partch, who used it to give an upper bound on the complexity of harmony; hence the name. "Roughly speaking, the larger the limit number, the more harmonically complex and potentially dissonant will the intervals of the tuning be perceived." "A scale belonging to a particular prime limit has a distinctive hue that makes it aurally distinguishable from scales with other limits."

In mathematics, a limit is the value that a function or sequence "approaches" as the input or index approaches some value. Limits are essential to calculus (and mathematical analysis in general) and are used to define continuity, derivatives, and integrals.

The concept of a limit of a sequence is further generalized to the concept of a limit of a topological net, and is closely related to limit and direct limit in category theory.

In formulas, a limit is usually written as

limf(n) = L
and is read as "the limit of f of n as n approaches c equals L". Here "lim" indicates limit, and the fact that function f(n) approaches the limit L as n approaches c is represented by the right arrow , as in

f(n) → L .