perpetually

[per-pech-oo-uh-lee]

adverb

1. forever or for an indefinitely long time.

   It is best to think of any software licensed in this way as perpetually licensed.

   We seem to be locked perpetually in the past.

2. without intermission or interruption; continually.

   The library received five more laptops to relieve the pressure on their perpetually busy media loan desk.

3. with continued recurrence; regularly or repeatedly: I'm the girl who loses pens constantly, forgets about quizzes in math, and is perpetually late.

   The city’s public schools, particularly in working-class neighborhoods, are perpetually understaffed.

   I'm the girl who loses pens constantly, forgets about quizzes in math, and is perpetually late.

Other Word Forms

• nonperpetually adverb
• quasi-perpetually adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of perpetually¹

perpetual ( def. ) + -ly

Example Sentences

I can also explain why, despite the snickers and stares and perpetually blooming bruises, it’s still worth it.

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Yet Harjo wrote Lee as a tragicomic figure perpetually floundering his way through his investigations and his life, taking his share of black eyes and deadly near-misses in the bargain.

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Whether it’s Morton’s perpetually scowling expression in the infrequent cutaways to Brian’s life back home or the on-the-nose emphasis on looming gray clouds, there’s no question a storm is coming.

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The federal public defender for Southern California is in charge of a unit that’s always underfunded and perpetually an underdog against the might and resources of the government.

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Getting complacent with an excess of a good thing, she perpetually seems to be reminding herself, can be deadly.

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Related Words

• constantly 
• endlessly www.thesaurus.com