limitation
Plurallimitations
- 1A rule, condition, or shortcoming that restricts what is possible or how far something can go.
The treaty places a strict limitation on the number of warheads each country may keep.
Memory limitations forced the developers to simplify the game's graphics.
Similarrestriction, constraint, cap, curb, restraint
Note
The countable restriction is often plural, with a noun in front naming its source. A Modern Railways report of 1962 blamed loading gauge limitations for carriage bodies built narrower than usual. The same pattern applies to people: to understand your own limitations is to know where your abilities stop. That use shades toward the "shortcoming" meaning.
- 2An imperfection or shortcoming that restricts something's usefulness or value.
The study's chief limitation is its small sample size.
Every translation has limitations that the original text does not.
Similarweakness, shortcoming, drawback, flaw, defect
Oppositestrength, advantage, merit
Note
A word of judgment that is at home in research writing, where every method is expected to have its weak points. The idiom have its limitations admits a weakness without dismissing the thing. Green and Lambert used it in 2018: both the MI score and the t-score have their limitations. Unlike the plain restriction, this sense always places the flaw in the thing itself.
- 3The act of restricting something, or the condition of being restricted.
Arms limitation dominated the negotiations between the two powers.
The new policy calls for the limitation of overtime hours across the company.
Similarrestriction, control, restraint, curtailment
Note
The noun of action that the other senses grow from. It was borrowed from Latin limitatio and is built the way English builds such nouns: limit plus -ation. Here it names the process or condition itself. It often follows the thing being restricted, as in arms limitation, or takes an of-phrase, as in the limitation of overtime hours. It can be used as a countable or an uncountable noun.
- 4A period of time after which a legal action may no longer be brought.
The court dismissed the case because the limitation had already expired.
Under state law, the limitation for personal injury claims is two years.
Note
Law turns the boundary into a deadline. The limitation is a span of time, usually stated in years, after which a claim can no longer be brought; such a claim is then time-barred. It usually takes a number in front of it, as in a ten-year limitation. A case delayed beyond that point escapes judgment, however strong the evidence against the defendant.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from Latin "limitatio," and also analyzable as "limit" plus the suffix "-ation."