• IPA: /ˈlɪmɪt/
• (India) IPA: /ˈlɪmɪt/, /ˈlɪmt/

From Middle English limit, from Old French limit, from Latin līmes.

limit (plural limits)

1. A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.

   There are several existing limits to executive power.

   Two drinks is my limit tonight.

   • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC ↗:

     It is the conductor which communicates to the inhabitants of regions beyond its limit […]

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 17]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC ↗:

     Ever he would wander, selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets, astronomical waifs and strays, to the extreme boundary of space […]

   • 2012 March 6, Dan McCrum, Nicole Bullock and Guy Chazan, Financial Times, “Utility buyout loses power in shale gas revolution” ↗:

     At the time, there seemed to be no limit to the size of ever-larger private equity deals, with banks falling over each other to arrange financing on generous terms and to invest money from their own private equity arms.

2. (mathematics) 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).

   The sequence of reciprocals has zero as its limit.

3. (mathematics) Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit.

   Category theory defines a very general concept of limit.

4. (category theory) The cone of a diagram through which any other cone of that same diagram can factor uniquely.

   Synonyms: inverse limit, projective limit

   Hyponyms: terminal object, categorical product, pullback, equalizer, identity morphism

5. (poker) Fixed limit.
6. The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge.

   the limit of a walk, of a town, or of a country

   • 1713, Alexander Pope, “Windsor-Forest. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC ↗:

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

7. (obsolete) The space or thing defined by limits.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     The archdeacon hath divided it / Into three limits very equally.

8. (obsolete) That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     the dateless limit of thy dear exile

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:

     The limit of your lives is out.

9. (obsolete) A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance.
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

     I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.

10. (logic, metaphysics) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic.
11. (cycling) The first group of riders to depart in a handicap race.
12. (colloquial, as "the limit") A person who is exasperating, intolerable, astounding, etc.

• (restriction) bound, boundary, limitation, restriction, threshold

• French: limite
• German: Grenze, Begrenzer
• Italian: limite, confine
• Portuguese: limite
• Russian: преде́л
• Spanish: límite

• French: limite
• German: Grenzwert, Grenze
• Italian: limite
• Portuguese: limite
• Russian: преде́л

• German: Limes, Grenzwert
• Italian: limite

limit (not comparable)

1. (poker) Being a fixed limit game.

From Middle English limiten, from Old French limiter, from Latin līmitō, from līmes; see noun.

limit (limits, present participle limiting; simple past and past participle limited)

1. (transitive) To restrict; to circumscribe; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound, to set boundaries.

   We need to limit the power of the executive.

   I'm limiting myself to two drinks tonight.

2. (mathematics, intransitive) To have a limit in a particular set.

   The sequence limits on the point a.

3. (obsolete) To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.

   a limiting friar

• (restrict) See Thesaurus:hinder

• (restrict) expand

• French: limiter
• German: befristen, begrenzen, beschränken
• Italian: limitare
• Portuguese: limitar, restringir
• Russian: ограни́чивать
• Spanish: limitar