Everlasting

How to spell everlasting

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce everlasting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does everlasting mean?

1. adjectiveLasting forever or for a very long time; never ending.

Everlasting in a sentence

• The couple promised each other everlasting love at the ceremony.

• The new battery gave the impression of an everlasting charge.

Where does everlasting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, built from two Old English elements rather than borrowed from abroad. The first part, 'ever', descends from the Old English 'aefre', meaning 'always' or 'at all times', whose exact roots are obscure but clearly Germanic. The second part comes from the verb 'last', from Old English 'laestan', meaning 'to continue, to endure, or to follow a track', which is related to the same family as the modern word 'last' in the sense of going on. Joined together by about the 1200s, 'everlasting' meant simply 'continuing always', and it was popularised in religious writing where it described eternal life. Because every piece of it is an ordinary modern word, the spelling holds few surprises: 'ever' plus 'last' plus the familiar '-ing' ending.

How the word is built

• ever (always)
• last (to endure)
• -ing (adjective/participle suffix)