# eternal

Pronunciation: say "i-TUR-nuhl" US /ɪˈtɝ.nəl/, UK /ɪˈtɜː.nəl/

## Adjective

1. Continuing forever, without ever coming to an end.
   - Simple: Lasting forever and never coming to an end.
   - _The poem imagines an eternal kingdom that no empire could ever topple._
   - _Carved into the stone was a vow of eternal friendship between the two cities._
2. Constant and unceasing; continually present without any pause.
   - Simple: Happening all the time and never stopping.
   - _She had grown weary of his eternal complaints about the weather._
   - _The eternal hum of traffic drifted up to the apartment day and night._
3. Existing outside time itself, rather than within time but lasting everlastingly as the sempiternal does.
   - Simple: Being outside of time itself, not just lasting a very long time.
   - _Classical theologians describe God as eternal, wholly beyond the flow of time._
   - _For Plato, the Forms are eternal, unchanging and untouched by temporal succession._

## Noun

4. A being who lives forever; an immortal.
   - Simple: A being that lives forever and never dies.
   - _The novel's eternals had wandered the earth since before recorded history._
   - _Only an eternal could remember the world as it stood ten thousand years ago._

## Adjective

5. Used as an intensifier meaning exceedingly great or, more often, exceedingly bad. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Used to make a complaint stronger, meaning very great or very bad.
   - _Stop that eternal whining and get your chores finished!_
   - _He grumbled about the eternal nuisance of visitors arriving without warning._

## Origin

This word came through Middle English and Old French from Late Latin aeternālis, based on Latin aeternus ('eternal'), which came from aevum ('age'). It replaced the native Old English word ēċe.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/eternal (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).