sempiternal
/ˌsɛm.pɪˈtɝ.nəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.58 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Example Sentences
- "The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
- "Why not sempiternal / Thou and I? Our vernal / Brightness keeping, / Time outleaping: / Passed the hodiernal!"
- "As they moved through the shop, which existed in a sempiternal twilight by what light filtered through the grimy windows that had not been washed for years, Rita paused to say, "You said there was some good stuff among this junk. Point me out something you wouldn't be glad to give away to get rid of it.""
- "[I]n filmdom, the sempiternal question continues: Can a male and female actor be just ‘good friends’?"
Etymology
From Old French sempiternel, from Medieval Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperæternus, from semper (“always”) + æternus (“eternal”).
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: sempiternel, -, sempiternus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌsɛm.pɪˈtɝ.nəl/
- British English: /ˌsɛm.pɪˈtɜː.nəl/