INDEFINITE

, Indeterminate, that which has no certain bounds, or to which the human mind cannot affix any. Des Cartes uses the word, in his Philosophy, instead of infinite, both in numbers and quantities, to signify an inconceivable number, or number so great, that an unit cannot be added to it; and a quantity so great, as not to be capable of any addition. Thus, he says, the stars, visible and invisible, are in number Indefinite, and not, as the Ancients held, infinite; and| that quantity may be divided into an Indefinite number of parts, not an infinite number.

Indefinite is now commonly used for indeterminate, number or quantity, that is, a number or quantity in general, in contradistinction from some particular known and given one.