eternity

/ɪˈtʌrnɪɾi/

/ɛˈtʌnɪti/

Other forms: eternities

Eternity means "forever," like living for all eternity. Or it can mean something that seems like it will go on for forever, like waiting an eternity for your sister to get out of the bathroom.

Eternity means "time without end, or infinity," like people who promise to love one another for eternity — they aren't planning to ever split up. When you put the word an before eternity, you can use it to describe a very long — too long — period of time, so that you can use it to complain. For example, you might use the phrase "it felt like an eternity," after waiting twenty minutes to get an ice cream cone.

Definitions of eternity

1. noun

   time without end
   synonyms: infinity

   types:

   alpha and omega

   the first and last; signifies God's eternity

   type of:

   time

   the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past
2. noun

   a seemingly endless time interval (waiting)
   type of:

   interval, time interval

   a definite length of time marked off by two instants
3. noun

   a state of eternal existence believed in some religions to characterize the afterlife
   synonyms: timeless existence, timelessness

   type of:

   being, beingness, existence

   the state or fact of existing