Permanently

How to spell permanently

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce permanently

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does permanently mean?

1. adverbIn a way that lasts or is intended to last indefinitely, without change or end.

Permanently in a sentence

• After the merger, the team relocated permanently to the head office.

• The chemical stain had permanently marked the kitchen worktop.

Where does permanently come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb manere, meaning 'to remain' or 'to stay in place'. Combined with the intensifying prefix per-, meaning 'through' or 'thoroughly', it formed permanere, 'to stay throughout' or 'to endure to the end'. From this came the present participle permanens, which passed into Old French as permanent and entered English in the early 1400s as an adjective describing something lasting and unchanging. The adverb permanently was then built in English by adding the familiar -ly suffix to that adjective. The same manere root sits quietly inside relatives such as 'mansion' (originally a dwelling where one stays) and 'remain', and recognising that man-as-in-remain core can help fix the tricky middle of the word, since the stumble is usually the unstressed -nent- before the ending.

How the word is built

• per- (through, thoroughly)
• man (from manere: to remain, stay)
• -ent (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)