Word.ws English Dictionary

asymptote

UK/ˈæsɪmptəʊ̯t/US/ˈæsɪmptoʊ̯t/

asymptote noun: a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely as it goes to infinity. The limit of the curve; its tangent "at infinity".

Noun

asymptote (plural asymptotes)

  1. A straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely as it goes to infinity. The limit of the curve; its tangent "at infinity".
    • The King rushed forward with all his cruel coordinates and mean values, stumbled into a dark forest of roots and logarithms, had to backtrack, then encountered the beast on a field of irrational numbers (F₁) and smote it so grievously that it fell two decimal places and lost an epsilon, but the...1974, Stanisław Lem, translated by Michael Kandel, The Cyberiad
  2. (broadly, figuratively) Anything which comes near to but never meets something else.
    • Language, in relation to thought, must ever be regarded as an asymptote.1860, Frederic William Farrar, An Essay on the Origin of Language, page 117

Verb

asymptote (third-person singular simple present asymptotes, present participle asymptoting, simple past and past participle asymptoted)

  1. To approach, but never quite touch, a straight line, as something goes to infinity.
    • 2006: Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Perimeter of Ignorance
      As you become more scientific, yes, the religiosity drops off, but it asymptotes.

asymptote meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malay

asymptote in Hindi

a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely
अनंतस्पर्शी anantsparśī

asymptote in Tamil

அணுகுகோடு, ஈற்றணுகி, தொலைதொடுகோடு, நீளத்தொடுவரை, எல்லை நிலை, தொடர்வரை

asymptote in Bengali

a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely
অসীমতট ośimotoṭ

asymptote in Malay

a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely
asimptot
More languagesFewer languages
asymptote in Indonesian
asimtot

Forms of asymptote

Noun
pluralasymptotes
Verb
third-person singular presentasymptotes
present participleasymptoting
past participleasymptoted
pastasymptoted

Origin of asymptote

circa 1650, from Ancient Greek ἀσύμπτωτη (asúmptōtē), the feminine of Apollonius Pergaeus' (circa 200 BC) Ancient Greek adjective ἀσύμπτωτος (asúmptōtos, “not falling together”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + συν- (sun-, “together”) + πτωτός (ptōtós, “fallen”). See also a-, syn-, -ote.

Words formed from asymptote

Questions about asymptote

What does asymptote mean?
Asymptote means a straight line which a curve approaches arbitrarily closely as it goes to infinity. The limit of the curve; its tangent "at infinity".
What is asymptote in Hindi?
Asymptote in Hindi is अनंतस्पर्शी (anantsparśī). See Asymptote meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is asymptote?
Asymptote can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce asymptote?
Asymptote is pronounced /ˈæsɪmptəʊ̯t/ (UK).
What is the plural of asymptote?
The plural of asymptote is asymptotes.

Words near asymptote in the dictionary

  1. asymptomatically
  2. asymptomaticity
  3. asymptomatics
  4. asymptomatology
  5. asymptosy
  6. asymptote
  7. asymptoted
  8. asymptotes
  9. asymptotia
  10. asymptotic
  11. asymptotic analyses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: asymptote (page history and authors); asymptote (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-عُثمان (Middle river exports)-asymptote.wav.

Cite this entry: “asymptote.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/asymptote. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.