What Does Continuum Mean?
A range or series of things that gradually changes from one part to the next, with no clearly distinct points between them.
For example, a continuum of parenting styles might show the different ways parents discipline their kids, from very strict to much more relaxed. Or, the scale used to describe someone's gluten intolerance might range from “no problems” to “strongly intolerable.” The idea of a continuum is also used in relativity theory to explain the space-time continuum.
Other words that mean the same thing are scale, range, series, and spectrum. Find more words by exploring the links below or using the search box. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to reflect current usage of the word 'continuum.' Views expressed in these examples do not represent the views of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Continuum is the name of a 1990s science fiction play-by-mail game, but it's also the term that mathematicians use for any kind of set or scale that gradually and smoothly changes from one part to another. You might also see the word referred to in terms of a “mathematical continuum,” which is a way of saying that mathematics itself is a sort of continuous process of discovery and refinement, not something fixed and unchanging.the continuum