different between myriad vs incalculable

English

Etymology

From French myriade, from Late Latin myriadis (genitive of myrias), from Ancient Greek ???????? (muriádos), genitive of ?????? (muriás, “number of 10,000”), from ?????? (muríos, “numberless, countless, infinite”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?m??i.æd/, /?m??i.?d/

Noun

myriad (plural myriads)

1. (historical) Ten thousand; 10,000 [from 16th c.]
2. A countless number or multitude (of specified things) [from 16th c.]
   • 1914, Henry Graham Dakyns, Xenophon, Cyropaedia, Book I:

     How far he surpassed them all may be felt if we remember that no Scythian, although the Scythians are reckoned by their myriads, has ever succeeded in dominating a foreign nation ...

Related terms

• tens of thousands

Usage notes

Used as an adjective (see below), 'myriad' requires neither an article before it nor a preposition after. Because of this, some consider the usage described in sense 2 above, where 'myriad' acts as part of a nominal (or noun) group (that is, "a myriad of animals"), to be tautological.

Translations

Adjective

myriad (not comparable)

1. (modifying a singular noun) Multifaceted, having innumerable elements [from 18th c.]
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, p. 131:

     one night he would be singing at the barred window and yelling down out of the soft myriad darkness of a May night; the next night he would be gone [...].

   • 2011 April 6–19, Kara Krekeler, "Researchers at Washington U. have 'itch' to cure problem", West End Word, 40 (7), p. 8:

     "As a clinician, it's a difficult symptom to treat," Cornelius said. "The end symptom may be the same, but what's causing it may be myriad."

2. (modifying a plural noun) Great in number; innumerable, multitudinous [from 18th c.]
   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, "London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):

     Driven by a perceived political need to adopt a hard-line stance, Mr. Cameron’s coalition government has imposed myriad new restrictions, the aim of which is to reduce net migration to Britain to below 100,000.

Translations

See also

• plethora

Swedish

Noun

myriad c

1. a myriad

Declension

References

• myriad in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

English

Etymology

in- +? calculable

Adjective

incalculable (comparative more incalculable, superlative most incalculable)

1. (not comparable) Too much, too vast, or too numerous to enable computation.

   The loss the National Library suffered from the fire is incalculable.

2. (not comparable, mathematics) Impossible to calculate.
3. (comparable) Of a person's mood or character, etc.: impossible to predict.

   He is incalculable when he's drunk. He can turn from an amiable person into a violent horror in a moment.

Synonyms

• (vast or numerous): huge; unimaginable
• (impossible to calculate): incomputable; see also Thesaurus:incalculable
• (of a person's mood or character, impossible to predict): capricious, fickle

Antonyms

• (vast or numerous): tiny
• (impossible to calculate): calculable

Related terms

• incalculability
• incalculably

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.kal.ky.labl/

Adjective

incalculable (plural incalculables)

1. incalculable

Further reading

• “incalculable” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Spanish

Adjective

incalculable (plural incalculables)

1. incalculable