eternal Hear it!

eternal Definition

eter·nal (ē tʉrnəl, i-)

adjective

  1. without beginning or end; existing through all time; everlasting
  2. of eternity
  3. forever the same; always true or valid; unchanging the eternal verities
  4. always going on; never stopping; perpetual eternal rest
  5. seeming never to stop; happening very often her eternal complaints
  6. Philos., Theol. outside or beyond time or time relationships; timeless

Etymology: ME < OFr < LL aeternalis < L aeturnus < aevum, an age < IE base *aiw-, *āju-, a life, vital force > aye

eternal Related Forms
eter·nally adverb eter·nal·ness noun
eternal Idioms

the Eternal

God

eternal Synonyms

eternal

modif.

  1. Without pause

    endless, interminable, continual, unbroken, continuous, continued, unceasing, incessant, ceaseless, constant, unending, enduring, persistent, always, relentless, uninterrupted, unremitting; see also perpetual 1.

    Antonyms changeable*, inconstant*, fluctuating.

  2. Without end

    everlasting, unending, endless, perpetual, never-ending, termless, infinite, indefinite, permanent, ageless, boundless, timeless, immortal, deathless, undying, forever, interminable, indeterminable, dateless, immeasurable, unfading, indestructible, always, limitless, imperishable, illimitable, indomitable, unconquerable, unyielding, eonian, sempiternal, to one's dying day, till doomsday, for ever and a day, for ever and ever; see also perpetual 1.

    Antonyms finite, temporary*, ending. See syn. study at perpetual.perpetual.

eternal Usage Examples

Modifying Another Word

  • seemingly: Can contemporary jazz recover its vitality or has the seemingly eternal inspiration of jazz evaporated?
  • not: Men say, and devils may say, and teach men to say - No; not eternal.
  • just: So it was not just eternal politics, but out of focus too.
  • then: If God has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of his Son then eternal life begins now.
  • so: Really, what makes the Dolls so eternal is the attitude - it got into rock's water supply and never left.
  • n't: They are n't eternal, they aren't natural.

Modifies a noun

  • damnation: Gone is the fear of eternal damnation, the weariness of working for heaven.
  • destiny: Our eternal destiny is going to depend on that.
  • salvation: In his resurrection is our hope of eternal salvation.
  • glory: We love you forever, risen Lord of eternal glory.
  • torment: The doctrine of eternal torment turns John 3:16 completely on its head.
  • punishment: We don't have to face eternal punishment in hell.

Used with adjective complement

  • spring: So hope springs eternal, at least on the gray hair front.
  • remain: Those ideas of exploring, fighting and befriending have evolved, but the thrill of discovery remains eternal.
  • create: We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.

Preposition: in

  • heaven: I personally believe that the Temples of the Mysteries are not houses made with hands, but are eternal in the heavens.
  • reality: So how could you come up then with a view that said salvation is eternal in reality but temporary in experience?
eternal Quotes

If ever I utter an oath again may my soul be blasted to eternal damnation!

—Shaw, George Bernard

But say That death be not one stroke, as I supposed, Bereaving sense, but endless misery From this day onward, which I feel begun Both in me, and without me, and so last To perpetuity; ay me, that fear Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution On my defenceless head; both Death and I Am found eternal, and incorporate both, Nor I on my part single, in me all Paradise Lost Posterity stands cursed: fair patrimony That I must leave ye, sons; O were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!

—Milton,John

Sleep demands of us a guilty immunity. There is not one of us who, given an eternal incognito, a thumbprint nowhere set against our souls, would not commit rape, murder and all abominations.

—Barnes, Djuna

The longest day must have its close,öthe gloomiest night will wear on to a morning. An eternal, inexorable lapse of moments is ever hurrying the day of the evil to aneternal night, andthenightofthejusttoaneternalday.

—Stowe, Harriet (Elizabeth) ne¤  e Beecher

Le charme de la nouveaute¤  , peu a'   peu tombant comme un ve" t ement, laissait voir a'   nu l'e¤  ternelle monotonie de la passion, qui a toujours les me"  mes formes et le me"  me langage. The charm of novelty, falling little by little like a robe, revealed the eternal monotony of passion, which has always the same forms and the same language.

—Flaubert, Gustave

The eternal not ourselves that makes for righteousness.

—Arnold, Matthew

Eternal Passion! Eternal Pain!

—Arnold, Matthew

Whatever mourns when many leave these shores: Whatever shares The eternal reciprocity of tears.

—Owen,Wilfred

I grow in worth, and wit, and sense, Unboding critic-pen, Or that eternal want of pence, Which vexes public men.

—Tennyson

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never Is, but alwaysTo be blest.

—Pope, Alexander

L'Ide¤  e seule est e¤  ternelle et ne¤  cessaire. The idea alone is eternal and necessary.

—Flaubert, Gustave

We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies.Our interests are eternal, and it is our duty to follow them.

—Palmerston, HenryJohnTemple, 3rd Viscount

The jazz band can be used for artificial excitement and aphrodisiac purposes, but not for spreading eternal truths.

—Bliss, SirArthur

I sometimes think the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.

—Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair

   He wakes or sleeps with the enduring dead; Thou canst not soar where he is sitting nowö Dust to the dust! but the pure spirit shall flow Back to the burning fountain whence it came, A portion of the Eternal.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Jedes geeinzelte Du ist ein Durchblick zu ihm. Durch jedes geeinzelte Du spricht das Grundwort das Ewige an. Every particularThou is a glimpse through to the eternal Thou; by means of every particularThou the primary word addresses the eternal Thou. 164

—Buber, Martin

Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name: That something still which prompts th'eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die.

—Pope, Alexander

If the war didn't happen to kill you it was bound to start you thinking. After that unspeakable idiotic mess you couldn't go on regarding society as something eternal and unquestionable, like a pyramid.You knew it was just a balls-up. 628

—Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair

Pity the poor creatures in warmer countries where the seasons never change.Where summer is eternal and they never know the pain of waiting and the joy at last when summer comes.

—Guy, Ray

His trust was with the eternal to be deemed Equal in strength, and rather than be less Cared not to be at all; with that care lost Went all his fear.

—Milton,John

All women's dresses, in every age and country, are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress.

—LinYutang

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