limitation

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of limiting or the state of being limited.
2. (countable, uncountable)A restriction; a boundary, real or metaphorical, caused by some thing or some circumstance.

   “Getting into his wheelchair after his amputation, it felt like a limitation you could roll in.”

   “He understood the exam material, but his fear was a limitation he could not overcome.”

   “The coaches are similar to those of the Hampshire diesel-electric units, which went into service in September, 1957, but have 8ft 6in wide bodies, instead of 9ft, because of loading gauge limitations on the South Eastern Division.”

   “Now, Nielsen is sending all hotel employees through EI training to help them become more open and confident, understand their own limitations and fears, and to boost their self-worth and comfort in dealing with other people.”

   “Telling a story is like an invitation for others to share their stories with you. That’s what I discovered at TED when I shared my story about a limitation that held me back from my dream.”

3. (countable, uncountable)An imperfection or shortcoming that limits something's use or value.

   “Both the MI score and the t-score have their limitations. MI computes a logarithm representing the number of co-occurrences of words compared to their occurrences apart in the corpus, which can highlight rare collocations if the components tend not to occur with other words. The t-score formula is less susceptible to this but its numerical result cannot be meaningfully compared across corpora of different sizes.”

4. (countable, uncountable)A time period after which some legal action may no longer be brought.

   “The lawyer obtained impunity by dragging his obviously guilty client's case beyond the ten-year limitation.”