Eipäättyvä

Eipäättyvä is Finnish an adjective meaning non-terminating or not-ending, used to describe processes, computations, or sequences that do not reach a terminal state within finite steps. It stands as the negated form of päättyvä, which means ending or terminating.

Orthography and usage notes: in standard Finnish, negation of adjectives is often written as two words (ei päättyvä) in ordinary prose, but in technical contexts eipäättyvä can appear as a closed compound. The choice of form may vary by style guide, but both convey the same meaning: the subject does not terminate.

Contexts of use: the term is common in formal disciplines such as mathematics and theoretical computer science. It describes objects that do not halt or conclude; for example, a non-terminating Turing machine run or an algorithm that continues indefinitely. In everyday language, eipäättyvä describes situations like infinite loops in programming or processes that persist without a defined end.

Examples: ohjelma voi jäädä eipäättyvään silmukkaan, jos ehtoja ei koskaan saavuteta. Tietokonetutkimuksessa eipäättyvä derivaatio tarkoittaa, ettei suoritus lopu.

Relation to related terms: eipäättyvä contrasts with päättävä or päättymätön (terminating or non-terminating, respectively). Another common Finnish descriptor is päättymätön, which is often preferred in purely mathematical or theoretical text, though eipäättyvä is widely understood in technical writing.

See also: päättyvä, päättävä, päättymätön, päättyminen, iteraatio.