Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Being without beginning or end.
- adjective Continuing without interruption; perpetual: synonym: continual.
- adjective Seemingly endless; interminable.
- noun Something timeless, uninterrupted, or endless.
- noun God. Used with the.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Existing without beginning or end of existence; existing throughout all time.
- Having a beginning but no end of existence or duration; everlasting; endless; imperishable: as, eternal fame.
- In a special metaphysical use, existing outside of all relations of time; independent of all time-conditions; not temporal.
- By hyperbole, having no recognized or perceived end of existence; indefinite in duration; perpetual; ceaseless; continued without intermission.
- “married to immortal verse,”
- It is sometimes applied to God (1 Tim. i. 17). Perpetual points to the future, and applies especially to that which is established: as, a perpetual covenant, desolation, feud. It is freely applied to anything that lasts indefinitely. All the four words are often used by hyperbole for that which has long duration. See
incessant . - noun That which is everlasting.
- noun Eternity.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One of the appellations of God.
- noun That which is endless and immortal.
- adjective Without beginning or end of existence; always existing.
- adjective Without end of existence or duration; everlasting; endless; immortal.
- adjective Continued without intermission; perpetual; ceaseless; constant.
- adjective Existing at all times without change; immutable.
- adjective Exceedingly great or bad; -- used as a strong intensive.
- adjective an appellation of Rome.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Lasting forever; unending.
- adjective philosophy existing outside time; as opposed to
sempiternal , existing within time buteverlastingly
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective continuing forever or indefinitely
- adjective tiresomely long; seemingly without end
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The august destiny of his own eternal city [observe -- '_eternal_,' not in virtue of history, but of prophecy, not upon the retrospect and the analogies of any possible experience, but by the necessity of an aboriginal doom], a city that was to be the centre of an empire whose circumference is everywhere, did not depend for any part of its majesty upon the meanness of its enemies; on the contrary, in the very grandeur of those enemies lay, by a rebound of the feelings inevitable to a Roman mind, the paramount grandeur of that awful Republic which had swallowed them all up.
The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 2 Thomas De Quincey 1822
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When we made that deal, I seem to remember the word eternal being in there, as in: eternal soul.
Roseanne Archy Roseanne Barr 2011
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When we made that deal, I seem to remember the word eternal being in there, as in: eternal soul.
Roseanne Archy Roseanne Barr 2011
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When we made that deal, I seem to remember the word eternal being in there, as in: eternal soul.
Roseanne Archy Roseanne Barr 2011
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When we made that deal, I seem to remember the word eternal being in there, as in: eternal soul.
Roseanne Archy Roseanne Barr 2011
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At my school, we say we teach what we call the eternal verities of journalism.
Jeff Jarvis: Product v. Process Journalism: The Myth of Perfection v. Beta Culture 2009
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At my school, we say we teach what we call the eternal verities of journalism.
Product v. process journalism: The myth of perfection v. beta culture « BuzzMachine 2009
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Although he desired, in some sense, to obtain what he called eternal life, the "joy thereof" had not been kindled in his cold, calculating heart.
The Parables of Our Lord William Arnot
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Yet hold thou still, what world soe'er may roll Naught fear thee, with the Captain of thy soul; In all the eternal world, the cosmic stir, All the eternal is akin to her; She shall survive, and quick'n, and live at last When all, save souls, have perished in the blast.
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The prophets of such a God take all the glow, all the hope, all the colour, all the worth, out of life on earth, and offer you instead what they call eternal bliss — a pale, tearless hell.
Unspoken Sermons Third Series 1824-1905 1889
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