# forever

Pronunciation: US say "fuh-REV-ur" /fəˈɹɛvɚ/; UK say "fuh-REV-uh" /fəˈɹɛvə(ɹ)/

## Adverb

1. For all time or for eternity; for the whole of someone's life or an endless stretch of time.
   - Simple: For all time, without ever ending.
   - _She promised to remember him forever._
   - _Nothing made by human hands lasts forever._
2. For a very long time, used to exaggerate how long something lasts or takes rather than to mean for all time. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: For a very long time that feels like it never ends.
   - _It took forever to find a parking spot downtown._
   - _The meeting dragged on forever before anyone reached a decision._
5. Constantly or repeatedly; happening so often it seems never to stop.
   - Simple: All the time, again and again.
   - _My neighbor is forever borrowing tools and never returning them._
   - _The toddler was forever asking why._

## Adjective

3. Permanent and lasting; meant to continue without ever ending. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Lasting always and never ending.
   - _Adopting the dog gave him a forever companion._
   - _After years of renting, they finally bought their forever home._

## Noun

4. An extremely long time, especially one that feels as though it will never end. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A really long time that feels like it will never end.
   - _I hadn't talked to my college roommate in forever, so her call last night was a happy surprise._
   - _We haven't been back to that restaurant in forever, and I miss its pasta._
6. A point imagined in the future that is understood never to actually arrive. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A time in the future that will never actually come.

## Origin

"Forever" formed by joining "for ever" into a single word (from Middle English "for ever"). It is first attested in the late 14th century, first written as one word in the late 17th century, with the noun use appearing in 1858.

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