"finitism" meaning in English

See finitism in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: From finite + -ism. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|finite|ism}} finite + -ism, {{wp}} Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} finitism (uncountable)
  1. (mathematics, philosophy) An extreme form of constructivism, according to which a mathematical object does not exist unless it can be constructed from natural numbers in a finite number of steps. Tags: uncountable Derived forms: finitist, ultrafinitism
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "finite",
        "3": "ism"
      },
      "expansion": "finite + -ism",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "",
      "name": "wp"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From finite + -ism.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "finitism (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -ism",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 2 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Mathematics",
          "orig": "en:Mathematics",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Philosophy",
          "orig": "en:Philosophy",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "finitist"
        },
        {
          "word": "ultrafinitism"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              187,
              195
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 August 4, Manon Bischoff, “Some Mathematicians Don’t Believe in Infinity”, in Scientific American, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2025:",
          "text": "As a result, some logical principles no longer apply, including Aristotle’s theorem of the excluded middle, according to which a mathematical statement is always either true or false. In finitism, a statement can be indeterminate at a certain point in time if the value of a number has not yet been determined. For example, with statements that revolve around numbers such as 0.999..., if you carry out the full period and consider an infinite number of 9’s, the answer becomes 1. But if there is no infinity, this statement is simply wrong.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An extreme form of constructivism, according to which a mathematical object does not exist unless it can be constructed from natural numbers in a finite number of steps."
      ],
      "id": "en-finitism-en-noun-iI7ik-st",
      "links": [
        [
          "mathematics",
          "mathematics"
        ],
        [
          "philosophy",
          "philosophy"
        ],
        [
          "constructivism",
          "constructivism"
        ],
        [
          "natural number",
          "natural number"
        ],
        [
          "finite",
          "finite"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(mathematics, philosophy) An extreme form of constructivism, according to which a mathematical object does not exist unless it can be constructed from natural numbers in a finite number of steps."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "mathematics",
        "philosophy",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "finitism"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "finitist"
    },
    {
      "word": "ultrafinitism"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "finite",
        "3": "ism"
      },
      "expansion": "finite + -ism",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "",
      "name": "wp"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From finite + -ism.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "finitism (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms suffixed with -ism",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 2 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Mathematics",
        "en:Philosophy"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              187,
              195
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 August 4, Manon Bischoff, “Some Mathematicians Don’t Believe in Infinity”, in Scientific American, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2025:",
          "text": "As a result, some logical principles no longer apply, including Aristotle’s theorem of the excluded middle, according to which a mathematical statement is always either true or false. In finitism, a statement can be indeterminate at a certain point in time if the value of a number has not yet been determined. For example, with statements that revolve around numbers such as 0.999..., if you carry out the full period and consider an infinite number of 9’s, the answer becomes 1. But if there is no infinity, this statement is simply wrong.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An extreme form of constructivism, according to which a mathematical object does not exist unless it can be constructed from natural numbers in a finite number of steps."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mathematics",
          "mathematics"
        ],
        [
          "philosophy",
          "philosophy"
        ],
        [
          "constructivism",
          "constructivism"
        ],
        [
          "natural number",
          "natural number"
        ],
        [
          "finite",
          "finite"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(mathematics, philosophy) An extreme form of constructivism, according to which a mathematical object does not exist unless it can be constructed from natural numbers in a finite number of steps."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "mathematics",
        "philosophy",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "finitism"
}

Download raw JSONL data for finitism meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.