eternal

English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

From Middle English eternal, from Old French eternal, from Late Latin aeternalis, from Latin aeternus (“eternal”), from aevum (“age”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈtɝnəl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈtɜːnəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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

Adjective

eternal (not comparable)

1. Lasting forever; unending.
   • John Locke

     to know whether there were any real being, whose duration has been eternal

   • Dryden

     Fires eternal in thy temple shine.

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

   some eternal villain

Synonyms

• (lasting forever; unending): unending, agelong, permanent, sempiternal, endless, everlasting
• (existing outside time): timeless, atemporal

Antonyms

• ephemeral

Derived terms

• coeternal
• eternal black hole
• eternal life
• eternal now
• eternal recurrence
• eternal return
• eternal triangle
• hope springs eternal

 

Translations

lasting forever

• Armenian: հավերժական (hy) (haveržakan), անմեռ (hy) (anmeṙ), անմեռական (anmeṙakan)
• Azerbaijani: daim, ömürlük, əbədi (az)
• Bashkir: мәңге (mäñge)
• Belarusian: ве́чны (vjéčny)
• Bengali: অনন্ত (bn) (ônônt), অমর (ômôr)
• Bulgarian: ве́чен (bg) (véčen)
• Catalan: etern (ca), eternal
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 永遠 (zh), 永远 (zh) (yǒngyuǎn)

• Chukchi: таӈӄонпыӈӄэн (taṇqonpyṇqėn)
• Czech: věčný (cs)
• Dutch: eeuwig (nl), eindeloos (nl)
• Finnish: ikuinen (fi), päättymätön (fi)
• French: éternel (fr)
• 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: נצחי‎ (he) m (natzkhi)
• Hindi: सनातन (hi) m (sanātan)
• Hungarian: örök (hu), örökös (hu), örökkévaló
• Icelandic: eilífur (is)
• Ido: eterna (io)
• Indonesian: abadi (id), kekal (id), langgeng (id), tetap (id), permanen (id)
• 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 (mäñgi)
• Khmer: គ្មានទីបំផុត (kmien tii bɑmpʰot)
• Korean: 영원하다 (ko) (yeong-wonhada)

• Kurdish: ebedî (ku), herherî (ku), hetahetayî (ku), bêdawî (ku)
• Latin: aeternus (la)
• Macedonian: вечен (večen)
• Maori: mutungakore
• Mongolian: мөнх (mn) (mönh)
• Norman: êtèrnel (Jersey)
• Norwegian: evig (no), endeløs, evinnelig
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: вѣчьнъ (věčĭnŭ)

• Old English: ēċe
• Persian: ابدی‎ (fa) (abadi)
• Plautdietsch: eewich
• Polish: wieczny (pl), wieczysty (pl)
• Portuguese: eterno (pt)
• Russian: ве́чный (ru) (véčnyj)
• Sanskrit: सनातन (sa) (sanātana)
• 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)
• Turkish: sonsuz (tr), ebedî (tr)
• Turkmen: ömürlik, baky (tk), ebedi
• Ukrainian: ві́чний (víčnyj)
• Uzbek: abadiy (uz), mangu (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,” I said.

Anagrams

• enteral, teneral

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Catalan

Adjective

eternal (masculine and feminine plural eternals)

1. eternal

Synonyms

• etern

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• eterneel, eternall

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French eternal, eternel, from 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.

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Spanish

Adjective

eternal (plural eternales)

1. eternal

Synonyms

• eterno