Adjective

(en adjective)

Lasting for a short period of time.

* Vicesimus Knox

Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.

* Sir J. Stephen

sentences not of ephemeral , but of eternal, efficacy

* '>citation

It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral , because human, sorrows.

(biology) Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.

(geology, of a body of water) Usually dry, but filling with water for brief periods during and after precipitation.

* 1986 , W.H. Raymond, "Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.", in Y?ichi Murakami et al. (editors), New Developments in Zeolite Science and Technology (conference proceedings), Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-444-98981-9, page 80:

The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense.

* , I.40:

The number is so infinite , that verily it would be an easier matter for me to reckon up those that have feared the same.

* (and other bibliographic particulars) H. Brooke

Whatever is finite, as finite, will admit of no comparative relation with infinity; for whatever is less than infinite is still infinitely distant from infinity; and lower than infinite distance the lowest or least cannot sink.

* (and other bibliographic particulars) Marlowe

infinite riches in a little room

* (and other bibliographic particulars) Milton

which infinite calamity shall cause to human life

Boundless, endless, without end or limits; innumerable.

* Bible, Psalms cxlvii. 5

Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite .

With plural noun: infinitely many.

* 2012 , Helen Donelan, ?Karen Kear, ?Magnus Ramage, Online Communication and Collaboration: A Reader

Huxley's theory says that if you provide infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters, some monkey somewhere will eventually create a masterpiece – a play by Shakespeare, a Platonic dialogue, or an economic treatise by Adam Smith.

(mathematics) Greater than any positive quantity or magnitude; limitless.

(set theory, of a set) Having infinitely many elements.

* {{quote-web

, year = 2009 , author = Brandon C. Look , title = Symbolic Logic II, Lecture 2: Set Theory , site = www.uky.edu/~look , url = http://www.uky.edu/~look/Phi520-Lecture7.pdf , accessdate = 2012-11-20 }}

For any infinite set, there is a 1-1 correspondence between it and at least one of its proper subsets. For example, there is a 1-1 correspondence between the set of natural numbers and the set of squares of natural numbers, which is a proper subset of the set of natural numbers.

(grammar) Not limited by person or number.

(music) Capable of endless repetition; said of certain forms of the canon, also called perpetual fugues, constructed so that their ends lead to their beginnings.