Perpetual

//pɚˈpɛt͡ʃuəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Ellipsis of perpetual check. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
Adjective
  1. 1
    Lasting forever, or for an indefinitely long time. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Set up to be in effect or have tenure for an unlimited duration. not-comparable

    "perpetual copyright"

  3. 3
    Continuing; uninterrupted. not-comparable

    ""And yet," returned Francesca, "the secret of Arden's sufferings seems to have been in himself. From earliest youth he indulged in vain contrasts and repinings, and even his very love was selfish and cruel. Think how much happiness he lost by his perpetual exaggerations!""

  4. 4
    Flowering throughout the growing season. not-comparable

    "By means of artificial hybridization, practised for a series of years, he has succeeded in producing a race of carnations which are perpetual bloomers."

Adjective
  1. 1
    uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing wordnet
  2. 2
    continuing forever or indefinitely wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
permanentabidingaeonianage-longagedageful

Example

More examples

"Lifelong education means perpetual retraining."

Etymology

From Middle English perpetuel, from Old French perpetuel, from Latin perpetuālis (“universal”), from perpetuus, from petō.

Related phrases

a contented mind is a perpetual feasthybrid perpetualperpetual betaperpetual bondperpetual canonperpetual curateperpetual futuresperpetual inventoryperpetual licenseperpetual motionperpetual motion machineperpetual motion machine of the first kind

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.