Daily Vocabulary

continuum:A continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other, although the extremes are quite distinct. What this really means is, a set in which one thing is slightly different form the one before it, and will be slightly different from the one after. Such as: sphere, globe, planet, world, reality, existence, life. Each one is reasonably synonymous with the ones beside it, but there's not much of a case to be made for life and sphere to be the same word. I like the idea of a continuum, of gradual changes sliding from one place to another. It's like taking a train in a way, and I like trains. Or a ship. Planes lose all sense of that continuity, taking you willy nilly from one place to another far distant in all senses. I'll take the plane, or the ship, if I have the time, thank you very much. Lacking time, of course, like anyone I love the convenience of a plane, and will get by with a continuum. But unhappily, I note. Unhappily indeed.