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Eternal

[ih-tur-nl]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

without beginning or end; lasting forever; always existing (opposed to temporal): eternal life.

perpetual; ceaseless; endless: eternal quarreling; eternal chatter.

enduring; immutable: eternal principles.

Metaphysics. existing outside all relations of time; not subject to change.

noun

something that is eternal.

the Eternal, God.

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Eternal is always a great word to know.

So is interrobang. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin aeternālis, equivalent to aetern(us) (see eterne) + -ālis -al¹

Related forms

e·ter·nal·i·ty

[ee-tur-nal-i-tee] , e·ter·nal·ness, noun

e·ter·nal·ly, adverb

non·e·ter·nal, adjective

non·e·ter·nal·ly, adverb

non·e·ter·nal·ness, noun

EXPAND

pre·e·ter·nal, adjective

qua·si-e·ter·nal, adjective

qua·si-e·ter·nal·ly, adverb

COLLAPSE

Synonyms
1. permanent, unending. Eternal, endless, everlasting, perpetual imply lasting or going on without ceasing. That which is eternal is, by its nature, without beginning or end: God, the eternal Father. That which is endless never stops but goes on continuously as if in a circle: an endless succession of years. That which is everlasting will endure through all future time: a promise of everlasting life. Perpeptual implies continuous renewal as far into the future as one can foresee: perpetual strife between nations. 3. timeless, immortal, deathless, undying, imperishable, indestructible.

Antonyms
1. transitory. 3. mutable.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Eternal

Example Sentences

Mcllen's difficulty as to eternal punishment is relieved by making a proper distinction between different kinds of punishment.

Character, revealed through action: the two eternal elements of narrative.

Design is moving centre-stage in the eternal human quest to make beauty out of necessity.

EXPAND

Mcllen's difficulty as to eternal punishment is relieved by making a proper distinction between different kinds of punishment.

Character, revealed through action: the two eternal elements of narrative.

Design is moving centre-stage in the eternal human quest to make beauty out of necessity.

But the seaside abides, representing the eternal escape.

The eternal golden braid emerges as a strange loop.

We invite you to respell the name of your favorite cable network to win the eternal admiration of your fellow readers.

The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Some of these are the eternal dilemmas that central bankers are doomed to relive time and again.

Damascus is an eternal city and worth a visit at any time of the year.

If that's the stick then the carrot is the reward of eternal bliss in exchange for absolute obedience.

Loyalists' devotion to their machine is almost eternal in computer years.

It's interesting to me what gets blamed in the eternal outcry about how students don't study enough.

Their guts might tell them this conflict will go on forever, that they are eternal enemies.

The noxious air dims sunshine to an eternal orange twilight.

But a clipping recently landed on my desk that reminded me that vigilance, eternal it would seem, is indeed the price of liberty.

Eternal vigilance is required to nip these encroachments in the bud.

That's especially true for modern waste, filled with eternal plastics.

He says he views cloning as a step toward reaching eternal life.

Something that is eternal by definition has no beginning.

They have no knowledge of time except the eternal now.

Compared to the lifespan of a human being, a rock seems almost eternal.

The concept of infinite/ eternal means nothing to a scientists.

Hope springs eternal from scientists who see the potential to improve the world and the lot of mankind.

It will take some sort of huge scientific discovery or some great revealing of a truth to reconcile this eternal debate.

To her these overshadowing eternal themes left no room for lesser ones.

And so our scholarship will not have eternal life-but it will have a quality of life that the endowment would have denied.

The idea reflects an eternal dilemma for governments everywhere.

The prediction comes from the theory of eternal inflation, which says our universe is part of the multiverse.

However, the essential point is that the universe must have had a beginning and that it cannot be eternal and infinitely old.

He plans to outwit the medical establishment on a grander scale by achieving eternal life.

Ando an eternal place in the pantheon of human progress.

It deals in eternal verities, not the petty excitements and obsessions.

Mummification was used to preserve the body so that the deceased's eternal soul would be able to reanimate it in the afterlife.

The price of liberty is, in addition to eternal vigilance, eternal patience with the vacuous blather.

Perhaps now,so many years later the spirits of those perished so long ago,can finally rest peacefully in their eternal slumber.

Some go as far as saying that if you are not a convert, you are going to a place called hell, where there is eternal suffering.

It's also an eternal testament to the artistic and scientific accomplishments of a wealthy.

There is an eternal temptation to push the envelope of efficiency by increasing economy of scale and complexity.

Religions offer the order and consolation of eternal values.

To deter such a resourceful animal requires eternal vigilance.

But now scientists have discovered a genetic mutation that could be responsible for the eternal perkiness of short-sleepers.

People have been trying to eat their way to eternal life for millennia.

For those who do not comply there is the promise of eternal suffering.

He did not promote a cult or even a mainstream religion preaching original sin, purgatory and the likelihood of eternal damnation.

In fact the nature of the genre seems to be as eternal as the city itself.

The universe may be eternal without beginning or end.

But mankind still needs to find energy efficient techniques so as not to waste this eternal source of power.

And his eternal and omnipotent nature would suggest that he is capable of creating life anywhere and in many ways.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

eternal (ɪˈtɜːn^əl)

—*adj*
1.	a. without beginning or end; lasting for ever: eternal life
	b. (as noun): the eternal
2.	(often capital) denoting or relating to that which is without beginning and end, regarded as an attribute of God
3.	unchanged by time, esp being true or valid for all time; immutable: eternal truths
4.	seemingly unceasing; occurring again and again: eternal bickering

[C14: from Late Latin aeternālis, from Latin aeternus; related to Latin aevum age]

eter'nality

—n

e'ternalness

—n

e'ternally

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

eternal

mid-14c. (in variant form eterne), from O.Fr. eternal, from L.L. aeternalis, from L. aeternus contraction of aeviternus "of great age," from aevum "age" (see eon). Related: Eternally.

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Matching Quote

"Now all the knowledge and wisdom that is in creatures, whether angels or men, is nothing else but a participation of that one eternal, immutable and increated wisdom of God, or several signatures of that one archetypal seal, or like so many multiplied reflections of one and the same face, made in several glasses, whereof some are clearer, some obscurer, some standing nearer, some further off."

-Ralph J. Cudworth

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