eternal
Americanadjective
-
without beginning or end; lasting forever; always existing (temporal ).
eternal life.
- Synonyms:
- permanent
- Antonyms:
- transitory
-
perpetual; ceaseless; endless.
eternal quarreling;
eternal chatter.
-
eternal principles.
- Synonyms:
- indestructible, imperishable, undying, deathless, immortal, timeless
- Antonyms:
- mutable
-
Metaphysics. existing outside all relations of time; not subject to change.
noun
-
something that is eternal.
-
the Eternal. God.
adjective
-
-
without beginning or end; lasting for ever
eternal life
-
( as noun )
the eternal
-
-
(often capital) denoting or relating to that which is without beginning and end, regarded as an attribute of God
-
unchanged by time, esp being true or valid for all time; immutable
eternal truths
-
seemingly unceasing; occurring again and again
eternal bickering
Related Words
Eternal, endless, everlasting, perpetual imply lasting or going on without ceasing. That which is eternal is, by its nature, without beginning or end: God, the eternal Father. That which is endless never stops but goes on continuously as if in a circle: an endless succession of years. That which is everlasting will endure through all future time: a promise of everlasting life. Perpeptual implies continuous renewal as far into the future as one can foresee: perpetual strife between nations.
Other Word Forms
- eternality noun
- eternally adverb
- eternalness noun
- noneternal adjective
- noneternalness noun
- preeternal adjective
- quasi-eternal adjective
Etymology
Origin of eternal
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English eternale, eterneel, from Old French eternal, eternel, from Late Latin aeternālis, equivalent to aetern(us) ( eterne ) + -ālis -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But anyone who grew up with the chicest member of the Muppets’ ensemble cast, whether on their TVs or in their dreams, understands she’s an eternal headliner.
From Salon
It is one of baseball’s eternal verities that wins and losses in spring training do not matter.
From Los Angeles Times
Absent that, he added, would invite “eternal confrontation.”
"Today, We've lost an architect of the New York sound, a trombonist who made metals his banner and wrote eternal chapters in music history," his manager Pietro Carlos said in a statement on social media.
From BBC
Authorship was eternal, but ownership had slipped away.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
