(rare, uncountable) The state or characteristic of being limited in number or scope.
1874, Julian Hawthorne, Idolatry: A Romance, ch. 31:He was calm in the conviction that he could measure and calculate the universe. . . . He matched finity against the Infinite.
1899, Jack London, "The White Silence":Nature has many tricks wherewith she convinces man of his finity.
1987, Julius Thomas Fraser, Time, the Familiar Stranger, ISBN 9780870235764, p. 37 (Google preview):In a very non-Aristotelian fashion, Nicholas of Cusa produced a synthesis of finity and infinity.
2006, Rolf A. F. Witzsche, Universal Divine Science: Spiritual Pedagogicals, ISBN 9781897046944, p. 106 (Google preview):We . . . labor to find our identity in the infinite in spite of our encumberment in finity.
(rare, countable) Something which is limited in number or scope.
1734, Isaac Watts, "A Brief Scheme of Ontology" in Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects (6th edition, 1794), p. 370 (Google preview):Disagreement in substance or essence . . . may be called Disproportion, as there is a disproportion between finities and infinities, i.e. there is no proportion between them.
1837 Sep. 2, "The Transcendalist's Dialogues: No. IX," The Shepherd, vol. 3, no. 10, p. 79 (Google preview):If we imagined a person capable of comprehending infinity, we should merely think that he was able infinitely to add up finities.
1884 Jan., "Prayer and Science," Methodist Quarterly Review, 4th series, vol. 66, p. 8 (Google preview):And this condescension of infinite Perfection to the finities—to their imperfections, contingencies, and littlenesses—is the very result of its perfection.
