eternal

English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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
• sempiternal

Derived terms

Terms derived from eternal

eternal life eternal recurrence

eternal return eternal triangle

hope springs eternal

Translations

lasting forever

• Armenian: հավերժական (hy) ‎(haveržakan), անմեռ ‎(anmeṙ), անմեռական ‎(anmeṙakan)
• Azeri: daim, ömürlük, əbədi (az)
• Bashkir: мәңге ‎(mäñge)
• Bengali: অনন্ত (bn) ‎(ônônt), অমর ‎(ômôr)
• Bulgarian: вечен (bg) ‎(večen)
• Catalan: etern (ca), eternal
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: věčný (cs) m
• Dutch: eeuwig (nl), eindeloos (nl)
• Finnish: ikuinen (fi), päättymätön (fi)
• French: éternel (fr)
• Georgian: მარადი ‎(maradi), სამუდამო ‎(samudamo), სამარადისო ‎(samaradiso), მუდმივი ‎(mudmivi)
• German: ewig (de)
• Greek: αιώνιος (el) ‎(aiónios)

  Ancient: αἰώνιος ‎(aiṓnios)

• Hebrew: נצחי (he) m ‎(natzkhi)
• Hindi: सनातन (hi) m ‎(sanaatan)
• Hungarian: örök (hu)
• Icelandic: eilífur (is)
• Ido: eterna (io)
• Indonesian: abadi (id), kekal (id), langgeng (id), tetap (id), permanen (id)
• 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)
• Norman: êtèrnel
• Kazakh: мәңгі ‎(mäñgi)
• Khmer: គ្មានទីបំផុត ‎(kmien tii bɑmpʰot)
• Korean: 영원히 (ko) ‎(yeong-weon-hi)
• Kurdish: ebedî (ku), herherî (ku), hetahetayî (ku), bêdawî (ku)
• Latin: aeternus (la)
• Maori: mutungakore
• Norwegian: evig (no), endeløs, evinnelig
• Polish: wieczny (pl) m, wieczysty (pl) m
• Portuguese: eterno (pt)
• Russian: ве́чный (ru) ‎(véčnyj)
• Sanskrit: सनातन (sa) ‎(sanātana)
• Scottish Gaelic: maireannach, sìorraidh
• Serbo-Croatian: večan (sh), vekotrajan, vekovečan (sh)
• Slovene: večen (sl)
• Spanish: eterno (es), eternal (es)
• Swedish: evig (sv)
• Turkish: sonsuz (tr), ebedî (tr)
• Turkmen: ömürlik, baky (tk), ebedi
• Uzbek: abadiy (uz), mangu (uz)
• Yiddish: אייביק ‎(eybik)

Anagrams

• enteral, teneral

---

Catalan

Adjective

eternal m, f ‎(masculine and feminine plural eternals)

1. eternal

Synonyms

• etern

---

Spanish

Adjective

eternal m, f ‎(plural eternales)

1. eternal

Synonyms

• eterno