different between unconfined vs illimitable

English

Etymology

un- +? confined

Adjective

unconfined (not comparable)

1. Not confined; free from physical restraint.

English

Etymology

From il- +? limitable.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?l?m'?t?b?l
• IPA^(key): /??l?m?t?b?l/

Adjective

illimitable (comparative more illimitable, superlative most illimitable)

1. Impervious to limitation, without limit.

   Synonyms: infinite, limitless, unlimited

   Antonyms: limitable, limited

   • 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, "An Address delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday evening, 15 July, 1838":

     The perception of this law of laws awakens in the mind a sentiment which we call the religious sentiment, and which makes our highest happiness. ... This sentiment is divine and deifying. It is the beatitude of man. It makes him illimitable.

   • 1908, Helen Keller, The World I Live In, New York: The Century Co., Chapter 4, p. 43,^[1]

     Through the sense of touch I know […] the illimitable variety of straight and curved lines,

   • ca. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth [Introduction]:

     The Creator sat upon the throne, thinking. Behind him stretched the illimitable continent of heaven, steeped in a glory of light and color; before him rose the black night of Space, like a wall.

   • 1909, Jack London, Revolution and Other Essays: The Shrinkage of the Planet

     What a tremendous affair it was, the world of Homer, with its indeterminate boundaries, vast regions, and immeasurable distances. The Mediterranean and the Euxine were illimitable stretches of ocean waste over which years could be spent in endless wandering.

Derived terms

• illimitability
• illimitably

See also

• inimitable