1. Referring to something that lasts forever; without ending: Most children think their parents will live an eternal life and never pass away or die.
2. Regarding a thing that is constant or ceaseless: Many people believe in an eternal life after death.
3. An old-fashioned term, concerning a person or thing that is extremely great or bad (to intensify a noun): The crook in town, who was still on the loose and not yet found by the police, was considered to be an eternal crook!
4. Etymology: from Old French eternal, from Late Latin aeternalis, from Latin æternus contraction of aeviternus, "of great age", from ævum, "age".