eternal

English

Alternative forms

• æternal (chiefly archaic)
• æternall, eternall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English eternal, from Old French eternal, from Late Latin aeternālis, from Latin aeternus (“eternal”), from aevum (“age”). Displaced native Old English ēċe.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈtɜː.nəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈtɝ.nəl/, /iˈtɝ.nəl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl
• Hyphenation: eter‧nal

Adjective

eternal (comparative more eternal, superlative most eternal)

1. Lasting forever; unending.

   Synonyms: agelong, endless, everlasting, permanent, sempiternal, unending; see also Thesaurus:eternal

   Antonyms: ephemeral, momentary, transient; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral

   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding:

     But here again it is another question, quite different from our having an idea of eternity, to know whether there were any real being, whose duration has been eternal.

   • 1700 [c. 1387–1400], John, transl. Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables, Ancient and Modern, translation of The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer:

     Thy smoking altar shall be fat with food / Of incense and the grateful steam of blood; / Burnt-offerings morn and evening shall be thine, / And fires eternal in thy temple shine.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Virmire:

     Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die.
     We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything.

   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     In a bid to understand the eternal mystery that is woman, Bart goes to the least qualified possible source for advice and counsel: his father, who remarkably seems to have made it to his mid-30s without quite figuring out much of anything.

2. (philosophy) Existing outside time; as opposed to sempiternal, existing within time but everlastingly.

   Synonyms: timeless, atemporal; see also Thesaurus:timeless

3. (hyperbolic) Constant; perpetual; ceaseless; ever-present.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     Beneath him you might have seen the three of us - myself, sunburnt, young, and vigorous after our open-air tramp; Summerlee, solemn but still critical, behind his eternal pipe; Lord John, as keen as a razor-edge, with his supple, alert figure leaning upon his rifle, and his eager eyes fixed eagerly upon the speaker.

4. (dated) Exceedingly great or bad; used as an intensifier.

   Synonym: awful

   some eternal villain

Usage notes

May be used postpositively, as in peace eternal, possibly as a result of Latin influence.

Derived terms

• coeternal
• crater of eternal darkness
• eternal black hole
• eternalism
• eternalist
• eternality
• eternalize
• eternal life
• eternally
• eternalness
• eternal now
• eternal recurrence
• eternal rest
• eternal return
• Eternal September
• eternal sin
• eternal sleep
• eternal triangle
• hope springs eternal
• hope springs eternal in the human breast
• life eternal
• noneternal
• on eternal patrol
• peak of eternal light
• supereternal
• uneternal

Translations

lasting forever

• Albanian: amshuar (sq)
• Arabic: أَبَدِيّ (ʔabadiyy)
• Armenian: հավերժական (hy) (haveržakan), անմեռ (hy) (anmeṙ), անմեռական (anmeṙakan), հավիտենական (hy) (havitenakan)
• Azerbaijani: daim, ömürlük, əbədi (az)
• Bashkir: мәңге (məñge)
• Belarusian: ве́чны (vjéčny)
• Bengali: অনন্ত (bn) (onnto), অমর (bn) (omor)
• Bulgarian: ве́чен (bg) (véčen)
• Catalan: etern (ca), eternal
• Chinese: 永恆 / 永恒 (zh) (yǒnghéng)

  Mandarin: 永遠 / 永远 (zh) (yǒngyuǎn), 永久 (zh) (yǒngjiǔ)

• Chukchi: таӈӄонпыӈӄэн (taṇqonpyṇqėn)
• Czech: věčný (cs)
• Dutch: eeuwig (nl), eindeloos (nl)
• Esperanto: eterna (eo)
• Finnish: ikuinen (fi), päättymätön (fi)
• French: éternel (fr)
• Galician: eterno (gl), eternal (gl)
• Georgian: მარადი (maradi), სამუდამო (samudamo), სამარადისო (samaradiso), მუდმივი (mudmivi), წარუვალი (c̣aruvali)
• German: ewig (de)
• Gothic: 𐌰𐌹𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (aiweins)
• Greek: αιώνιος (el) (aiónios)

  Ancient: αἰώνιος (aiṓnios)

• Hebrew: נִצְחִי m (nitzḥí)
• Hindi: सनातन (hi) m (sanātan), सदैव (hi) (sadaiv), सर्वदा (hi) (sarvadā), शाश्वत (hi) (śāśvat)
• Hungarian: örök (hu), örökös (hu), örökkévaló (hu)
• Icelandic: eilífur (is)
• Ido: eterna (io)
• Indonesian: abadi (id), kekal (id), langgeng (id), tetap (id), permanen (id)
• Ingrian: jokaaikain, iänikäin
• Irish: síoraí
• Italian: eterno (it)
• Japanese: 永遠の (ja) (えいえんの, eien no), 永久の (ja) (えいきゅうの, eikyū no)
• Kazakh: мәңгі (mäñgı), бақи (baqi)
• Khmer: គ្មានទីបំផុត (kmien tii bɑmpʰot)
• Korean: 영원하다 (ko) (yeong'wonhada)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ebedî (ku), herherî (ku), hetahetayî (ku), bêdawî (ku)

• Latin: aeternus (la), sempiternus
• Macedonian: вечен (večen)
• Maori: mutungakore
• Middle English: eternal, eterne
• Mongolian: мөнх (mn) (mönx)
• Norman: êtèrnel (Jersey)
• Norwegian: evig (no), endeløs, evinnelig
• Occitan: etèrn (oc), eternal (oc)
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: вѣчьнъ (věčĭnŭ)

• Old English: ēċe
• Old Tupi: opaba'erame'yma
• Ottoman Turkish: صوڭسز (soñsız), ابدی (ebedî), دایم (daim), موبد (muʿebbed), پاینده (payende, payanda)
• Persian: جاوید (fa) (jâvid), ابدی (fa) (abadi)
• Plautdietsch: eewich
• Polish: wieczny (pl), wieczysty (pl), wiekuisty, bezczasowy (lit. timeless), pozaczasowy (lit. timeless)
• Portuguese: eterno (pt)
• Russian: ве́чный (ru) (véčnyj)
• Sanskrit: सनातन (sa) (sanātana), सदैव (sadaiva)
• Scottish Gaelic: maireannach, sìorraidh
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ве̏чан, вје̏чан

  Roman: vȅčan (sh), vjȅčan (sh), vekotrajan, vekovečan (sh)

• Slovak: večný
• Slovene: večen (sl)
• Spanish: eterno (es), eternal (es)
• Swahili: -a milele
• Swedish: evig (sv)
• Tocharian B: ṣekaññe
• Turkish: sonsuz (tr), ebedî (tr), bengi (tr)
• Turkmen: ömürlik, baky (tk), ebedi
• Ukrainian: ві́чний (víčnyj)
• Uzbek: abadiy (uz), mangu (uz), boqiy (uz)
• Welsh: didranc
• Yiddish: אייביק (eybik)

Noun

eternal (plural eternals)

1. One who lives forever; an immortal.
   • 2012, D. E. Phoenix, Revelations of the Fallen: The Blasphemy of Astrial Belthromoto:

     Yes, I want that raw power that is only offered to the eternals or creators

Anagrams

• enteral, teneral

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aeternālis. First attested in the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ə.tərˈnal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [e.teɾˈnal]

Adjective

eternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural eternals)

1. eternal

   Synonym: etern

Further reading

• “eternal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “eternal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “eternal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Galician

Etymology

From Latin aeternālis.

Adjective

eternal m or f (plural eternais)

1. (formal) eternal

   Synonym: eterno

Further reading

• “eternal”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

Middle English

Alternative forms

• eterneel, eternall

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French eternal, eternel, from Latin aeternālis; equivalent to eterne +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛːtɛrˈnaːl/, /ɛːˈtɛrnal/, /ɛːtɛrˈnɛːl/

Adjective

eternal

1. Eternal, permanent; having existed (and existing) forever.
2. Endless, unending; lasting forever.
3. (rare) Long-lasting; non-ephemeral.

Synonyms

• eterne

Descendants

• English: eternal, tarnal
• Scots: eternal

References

• “ēternā̆l, -ē̆l, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-01-19.

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin aeternālis.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Languedoc):

  (file)

Adjective

eternal m (feminine singular eternala, masculine plural eternals, feminine plural eternalas)

1. eternal

   Synonym: etèrn

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aeternālis.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /e.teʁˈnaw/ [e.teɦˈnaʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /e.teʁˈnaw/ [e.teɦˈnaʊ̯]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /e.teɾˈnaw/ [e.teɾˈnaʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /e.teʁˈnaw/ [e.teʁˈnaʊ̯]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /e.teɻˈnaw/ [e.teɻˈnaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.tɨɾˈnal/ [i.tɨɾˈnaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.tɨɾˈnal/ [i.tɨɾˈnaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.tɨɾˈna.li/

• Hyphenation: e‧ter‧nal

Adjective

eternal m or f (plural eternais, not comparable)

1. eternal

   Synonym: eterno

Further reading

• “eternal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin aeternālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eteɾˈnal/ [e.t̪eɾˈnal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: e‧ter‧nal

Adjective

eternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural eternales)

1. eternal

   Synonym: eterno

Further reading

• “eternal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10