FOREVER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does forever mean? 

• FOREVER (adverb)
  The adverb FOREVER has 3 senses:

1. for a limitless time

2. for a very long or seemingly endless time

3. without interruption

  Familiarity information: FOREVER used as an adverb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOREVER (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

For a limitless time

Synonyms:

eternally; everlastingly; evermore; forever

Context example:

brightly beams our Father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore

Sense 2

Meaning:

For a very long or seemingly endless time

Synonyms:

forever; forever and a day

Context example:

we had to wait forever and a day

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Without interruption

Synonyms:

always; constantly; forever; incessantly; perpetually

Context example:

the world is constantly changing

 Context examples 

I understand that, Mr. Holmes, and it is already settled that he shall leave me forever, and go to seek his fortune in Australia.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"And I should have lived a coward forever," declared the Lion, "and no beast in all the forest would have had a good word to say to me."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

But soon he found that that would not answer forever.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A permanent tattoo is meant to last forever.

(Piercing and Tattoos, NIH)

Jo, dear, I want to say one thing, and then we'll put it by forever.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He seemed made to run on forever.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Of course, once this happens, that water and CO2 are gone forever.

(Mars Terraforming Not Possible Using Present-Day Technology, NASA)

And even I, Sitka Charley, am tired. Will we go on forever this way without end? I do not know.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Researchers note that the new carbon storage is not forever, since future warming will likely start re-thawing some of the permafrost and release some of the carbon in it via microbial decomposition.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)

The fifth house of truelove is also the house of creativity—they are forever linked.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)