永遠
Meaning in Englisheternity, forever, perpetuity
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Related sentences
There are no published items in this section yet.
Word context
What it means
永遠 (eien) refers to an unending duration or state — the idea of something that continues without limit in time; it is used to describe permanence or timeless continuity in abstract, emotional, spiritual, or philosophical contexts.
Main meanings
- 1. An abstract concept of timelessness or permanence used in philosophical or poetic discourse rather than precise measurable time.
- 2. A literary intensifier for commitments, feelings, or ideals that are portrayed as unending.
- 3. A lexical item that can function in different grammatical roles (see usage) rather than only a concrete noun.
How to use it
Used across formal writing, literature, religious texts, and everyday speech when emphasizing lastingness; commonly appears in solemn statements, vows and poetic expressions, and can modify nouns or form adverbial phrases depending on particles added — register ranges from literary/formal to emphatic everyday use.
Variants and close terms
- 永久 (eikyū) — long-term perpetuity (synonym, more legal/technical nuance)
- 不滅 (fumetsu) — indestructibility or immortality (nuanced synonym)
- 儚い (hakanai) — ephemeral, fleeting (antonym)
Composition
- 永 — conveys enduring, long-lasting qualities such as permanence or 'everlasting'.
- 遠 — literally means 'far' or 'distant', here contributing a sense of remoteness in time rather than space; together they fuse the ideas of 'everlasting' and 'far-reaching' to form the notion of unending duration.
Origin
The compound entered Japanese through Sino-Japanese vocabulary influenced by Classical Chinese and Buddhist texts during the Asuka–Nara and Heian periods; it appears in early waka and religious writings where Chinese characters were used to express abstract temporal and spiritual concepts.
Word class
noun (名詞); can modify nouns attributively using no (の) and form adverbial expressions with ni (に).