boundless

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English bound

Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der.

Proto-Germanic *leusaną

Proto-Germanic *lausaz

Proto-Germanic *-lausaz

Proto-West Germanic *-laus

Old English -lēas

Middle English -les

English -less

English boundless

From bound + -less.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊndləs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bound‧less

Adjective

boundless (comparative more boundless, superlative most boundless)

1. Without bounds, unbounded.
   • 1785, William Cowper, “Book III. The Garden.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC, page 133:

     'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

   • 1817 (published 11 January 1818), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Sonnet. Ozymandias.”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume III, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 67:

     Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 82:

     […] still, from the audacious, daring, and boundless adventure of their subsequent lives, strangely blend with these unoutgrown peculiarities, a thousand bold dashes of character, not unworthy a Scandinavian sea-king, or a poetical Pagan Roman.

Synonyms

• bottomless, extentless, limitless, unbottomed, unbounded; see also Thesaurus:infinite

Antonyms

• limited

Derived terms

• boundlessly
• boundlessness
• unboundless

Translations

without bounds, unbounded

• Bengali: বেহদ্দ (bn) (behoddo)
• Bulgarian: безграни́чен (bg) (bezgraníčen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無邊 / 无边 (zh) (wúbiān)

• Danish: grænseløs, ubegrænset
• Dutch: grenzeloos (nl), onbegrensd (nl)
• Esperanto: senlima
• Finnish: rajaton (fi)
• French: illimité (fr)
• German: grenzenlos (de), unbegrenzt (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἄπειρος (ápeiros), ἀπέραντος (apérantos), ἄπλετος (ápletos)

• Hebrew: ללא גבול (le lo gevūl)
• Hindi: अदिति (hi) (aditi), असीम (hi) (asīm), अपार (hi) (apār), अपरिमित (hi) (aprimit), असीमित (hi) (asīmit)
• Irish: as cuimse
• Italian: illimitato (it), sconfinato (it)
• Latin: īnfīnītus, illīmitātus
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: grenseløs (no), ubegrenset (no)

• Plautdietsch: onbeschrenkjt
• Polish: bezgraniczny (pl) m, bezkresny (pl)
• Romanian: nemărginit (ro)
• Russian: безграни́чный (ru) (bezgraníčnyj), беспреде́льный (ru) (bespredélʹnyj), бескра́йний (ru) (beskrájnij), бесконе́чный (ru) (beskonéčnyj)
• Sanskrit: अनन्त (sa) (ananta), अदिति (sa) (aditi)
• Spanish: ilimitado (es), sin límites
• Turkish: sınırsız (tr), sonsuz (tr)
• Ukrainian: безме́жний (uk) (bezméžnyj), безкра́йній (uk) (bezkrájnij), безкра́їй (uk) (bezkrájij)