enduring
Americanadjective
-
lasting; permanent.
a poet of enduring greatness.
-
patient; long-suffering.
adjective
-
permanent; lasting
-
having forbearance; long-suffering
Other Word Forms
- enduringly adverb
- enduringness noun
- nonenduring adjective
- unenduring adjective
- unenduringly adverb
Etymology
Origin of enduring
Explanation
Many people have an enduring love for ice cream, that is, they have loved it for a long time and will continue to love it into the future. Enduring means long-lasting. Enduring has roots that go back about 1,500 years to the Late Latin period. It is quite an enduring word! The original root meant hard, so your enduring friendship or your enduring interest in sports is solid enough to stand the test of time. Besides meaning long-lasting, enduring sometimes means long-suffering as when someone has an enduring disposition, but this meaning is found in the verb more than in the adjective.
Vocabulary lists containing enduring
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Franklin Roosevelt, "Four Freedoms" (1941)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hay Fever is one of Coward's most enduring comedies, and follows the self-centred Bliss family - retired actress Judith, her novelist husband David, and their children Sorel and Simon.
From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026
The Life Through a Royal Lens exhibition explores the enduring relationship between the Crown and the camera over 200 years.
From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026
This highlights how crucial these protective structures are for enduring extreme environments.
From Science Daily • Apr. 12, 2026
That Collin Morikawa is even relevant at this point is stunning, considering the physical battle he’s enduring.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2026
Though the Semitic biblical cosmos toppled the Aristotelian one, the idea of an eternal, unchanging universe was not expunged completely, enduring even to the twentieth century.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
