Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Occurring at an unspecified time in the future.
  • adjective Archaic Dependent on circumstance; contingent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to the event or issue; happening or to happen or exist finally; ultimate: as, his eventual success was unexpected.
  • Contingent upon a future or as yet unknown event; depending upon an uncertain event; that may happen or come about: as, an eventual succession.
  • Synonyms Ultimate, Conclusive, etc. See final.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Coming or happening as a consequence or result; consequential.
  • adjective Final; ultimate.
  • adjective (Law) Dependent on events; contingent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to events.
  • adjective Inevitable.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective expected to follow in the indefinite future from causes already operating

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French éventuel, from Latin ēventus, outcome; see event.]

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Examples

  • AP -- Berkshire Hathaway has hired a second hedge fund manager to help run the company's investment portfolio and prepare for what it described as the eventual retirement of 81-year-old billionaire Warren Buffett.

    unknown title 2011

  • Berkshire Hathaway has hired a second hedge fund manager to help run the company's investment portfolio and prepare for what it described as the eventual retirement of 81-year-old billionaire Warren Buffett.

    SFGate: Top News Stories By JOSH FUNK 2011

  • AP -- Berkshire Hathaway has hired a second hedge fund manager to help run the company's investment portfolio and prepare for what it described as the eventual retirement of 81-year-old billionaire Warren Buffett.

    unknown title 2011

  • He points to the embattled housing market, worsening job outlook and deepening fiscal woes to back his contention that investors should be getting out their umbrellas to deal with what he calls the eventual "3D hurricane" of soaring debt and deficits and aging demographics.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed BRIAN MILNER 2012

  • He points to the embattled housing market, worsening job outlook and deepening fiscal woes to back his contention that investors should be getting out their umbrellas to deal with what he calls the eventual "3D hurricane" of soaring debt and deficits and aging demographics.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed BRIAN MILNER 2012

  • Belén Proaño of Temas Para Debatir [es] writes about Espejo's role in eventual independence:

    Global Voices in English » Ecuador: The Cry for Independence 200 Years Ago 2009

  • The Third Quarter begins to express the difficulties and limitations of extraction, which result in eventual diminishment of supply.

    Jobs and Tax Cuts, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • The long struggle, as we all know, resulted in eventual victory for the Commons.

    The Purpose of Parliament 1957

  • That may remain true, but "eventual" -- the ability to look to some time in the future -- is what we no longer have.

    Larry Diamond: The Fierce Urgency of Now 2008

  • Going down that intellectual path that would take us into complex discussions about such theoretical frameworks as functionalism, structuralism, Marxism, intellectualism, and postmodernism, among others. 32 Although I do think it is important to acknowledge these scholarly approaches because they are important in eventual theory-building, at the same time too much of the focus on the paradigmatic aspect of the debate seems, at least to a point, to neglect interest in the growth of knowledge in favor of the interest of engaging in scholarly debate.

    Societies, Religion, and History: Central East Tanzanians and the World They Created, c. 200 BCE to 1800 CE 2008

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