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Sustain vs Continuous - What's the difference?

sustain | continuous |

As a noun sustain

is (music) a mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.

As a verb sustain

is to maintain, or keep in existence.

As an adjective continuous is

without break, cessation, or interruption; without intervening time.

sustain

English

Noun

(wikipedia sustain) (en noun)
  • (music) A mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To maintain, or keep in existence.
  • To provide for or nourish.
  • provisions to sustain an army
  • To encourage (something ).
  • To experience or suffer (an injury, etc. ).
  • * Dryden
  • Shall Turnus, then, such endless toil sustain ?
  • * Shakespeare
  • You shall sustain more new disgraces.
  • To confirm, prove, or corroborate.
  • to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition
  • To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support.
  • A foundation sustains''' the superstructure; an animal '''sustains''' a load; a rope '''sustains a weight.
  • To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • * Dryden
  • his sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain

    Derived terms

    * sustainable * sustainedly

    continuous

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Without break, cessation, or interruption; without intervening time.
  • a continuous current of electricity
  • * 1847 , , Ticknor and Fields (1854), page 90:
  • he can hear its continuous murmur
  • Without intervening space; continued; protracted; extended.
  • a continuous line of railroad
  • (botany) Not deviating or varying from uniformity; not interrupted; not joined or articulated.
  • (analysis, of a function) Such that, for every x'' in the domain, for each small open interval ''D'' about ''f''(''x''), there's an interval containing ''x'' whose image is in ''D .
  • (mathematics, more generally, of a function) Such that each open set in the range has an open preimage.
  • Each continuous function from the real line to the rationals is constant, since the rationals are totally disconnected.
  • (grammar) Expressing an ongoing action or state.
  • Usage notes

    *

    Synonyms

    * (without break, cessation, or interruption in time''): constant, continual (''but see usage notes above ), incessant, never-ending, ongoing, unbroken, unceasing, unending, uninterrupted * (without break, cessation, or interruption in space ): connected, unbroken * See also

    Antonyms

    * (without break, cessation, or interruption in time ): broken, discontinuous, discrete, intermittent, interrupted * (without break, cessation, or interruption in space ): broken, disconnected, disjoint, unbroken * (in mathematical analysis ): discontinuous, stepwise

    Derived terms

    * continuous brake * continuous impost * continuously * continuousness (in mathematics) * continuous distribution * continuous function * continuous group * continuous line illusion * continuous map * continuous mapping theorem * continuous space * continuous vector bundle * continuously differentiable function * uniformly continuous

    See also

    * constant * contiguous

    References