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Persistent vs Forever - What's the difference?

persistent | forever |

As an adjective persistent

is obstinately refusing to give up or let go.

As an adverb forever is

(duration) for all time, for all eternity; for an infinite amount of time.

As a noun forever is

an extremely long time.

persistent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Obstinately refusing to give up or let go.
  • She has had a persistent cough for weeks.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=November 10 , author=Jeremy Wilson , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.}}
  • Insistently repetitive.
  • There was a persistent knocking on the door.
  • Indefinitely continuous.
  • There have been persistent rumours for years.
  • (botany) Lasting past maturity without falling off.
  • Pine cones have persistent scales.
  • *
  • The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed into a water-sac, is normally very narrowly attached to the stem and to the dorsal lobe; indeed some Frullania'' taxa reproduce vegetatively by dropping the dorsal lobes, but not the lobules, and ''Neohattoria has caducous lobules but persistent lobes.
  • (computing) About some data or data structures: existing after the execution of the program. Remaining in existence past the lifetime of the program that creates it.
  • Once written to a disk file the data becomes persistent and it will still be there tomorrow when we run the next program.
    This way transient value becomes persistent .
  • (mathematics) Describing a fractal process that has a positive Brown function
  • (mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) non-transient.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    forever

    English

    Alternative forms

    * for ever

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (duration) for all time, for all eternity; for an infinite amount of time.
  • ''I shall love you forever .
  • * 1839 , Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy Page 95
  • Secondly, When a body is once in motion it will continue to move forever , unless something stops it. When a ball is struck on the surface of the earth, the friction of the earth and the resistance of the air soon stop its motion.
  • (duration, colloquial) for a very long time, 'an' eternity.
  • ''We had to wait forever to get inside.
  • (frequency) constantly or frequently.
  • ''You are forever nagging me.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 5
  • Early in his boyhood he had learned to form ropes by twisting and tying long grasses together, and with these he was forever tripping Tublat or attempting to hang him from some overhanging branch.

    Usage notes

    * In the United Kingdom and most of the Commonwealth, the spelling for ever'' may be used instead of ''forever'' for the senses "for all time" and "for a long time". In Canada and the United States, generally only ''forever is used, regardless of sense.

    Synonyms

    * always * continually * eternally * evermore * for good * forevermore * for ever more * incessantly * until Kingdom come

    Derived terms

    * foreverness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An extremely long time.
  • *
  • * 2007 , Ruth O'Callaghan, Where acid has etched
  • In the airport, holiday lovers kiss, mouth forevers , the usual argot betrays you. Desire makes love dull.
  • (colloquial) a mythical time in the infinite future that will never come.
  • ''Sure, I'd be happy to meet with you on the 12th of forever .