perennial

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: per=en=ni=al

CIDE DICTIONARY

perennial, a. [L. perennis that lasts the whole year through; per through + annus year. See Per-, and Annual.].

•  ing or continuing through the year; as, perennial fountains.  [1913 Webster]
•  Continuing without cessation or intermission; perpetual; unceasing; never failing.  [1913 Webster]

  "The perennial existence of bodies corporate."  [1913 Webster]
•  Continuing more than two years; as, a perennial steam, or root, or plant.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Perpetual; unceasing; never failing; enduring; continual; permanent; uninterrupted.

perennial, n. 

 A perennial plant; a plant which lives or continues more than two years, whether it retains its leaves in winter or not.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

perennial, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 lasting through a year or several years.
2 (of a plant) lasting several years (cf. ANNUAL).
3 lasting a long time or for ever.
4 (of a stream) flowing through all seasons of the year.
--n. a perennial plant (a herbaceous perennial).

Derivative

perenniality n. perennially adv.

Etymology

L perennis (as PER-, annus year)

THESAURUS

perennial

abiding, age-long, aged, amphibian, ancient, angiosperm, annual, antique, aquatic plant, articulated, biennial, catenated, ceaseless, chattering, chronic, concatenated, connected, constant, continual, continued, continuing, continuous, cosmopolite, cutting, cyclical, deciduous, deciduous plant, dicot, dicotyledon, direct, diuturnal, durable, endless, enduring, ephemeral, eternal, ever-blooming, ever-new, evergreen, everlasting, exotic, featureless, flowering plant, fungus, gametophyte, gapless, gymnosperm, half-hardy, hardy, hydrophyte, immediate, immortal, immutable, imperishable, incessant, indeciduous, interminable, intransient, inveterate, joined, jointless, lasting, lifelong, linked, long-lasting, long-lived, long-standing, long-term, longeval, longevous, machine gun, macrobiotic, monocot, monocotyl, monotonous, never-ending, never-failing, nonstop, of long duration, of long standing, old, oscillating, perdurable, perduring, periodic, permanent, perpetual, persistent, persisting, plant, polycot, polycotyl, polycotyledon, pulsating, rapid, recurrent, regular, remaining, repeated, repetitive, round-the-clock, running, seamless, seed plant, seedling, sempervirent, sempiternal, serried, smooth, spermatophyte, sporophyte, stable, staccato, staying, steadfast, steady, straight, stuttering, sustained, thallophyte, timeless, tough, triennial, twenty-four-hour, unbroken, unceasing, unchanging, undifferentiated, undying, unending, unfading, unfailing, uniform, unintermitted, unintermittent, unintermitting, uninterrupted, unrelieved, unremitting, unstopped, unvarying, vascular plant, vegetable, vibrating, vital, weed

ROGET THESAURUS

perennial

Continuity

N continuity, consecution, consecutiveness, succession, round, suite, progression, series, train chain, catenation, concatenation, scale, gradation, course, ceaselessness, constant flow, unbroken extent, procession, column, retinue, cortege, cavalcade, rank and file, line of battle, array, pedigree, genealogy, lineage, race, ancestry, descent, family, house, line, line of ancestors, strain, rank, file, line, row, range, tier, string, thread, team, suit, colonnade, continuous, continued, consecutive, progressive, gradual, serial, successive, immediate, unbroken, entire, linear, in a line, in a row, uninterrupted, unintermitting, unremitting, unrelenting (perseverence), perennial, evergreen, constant, continuously, seriatim, in a line, in succession, in turn, running, gradually, step by step, gradatim, at a stretch, in file, in column, in single file, in Indian file.

Diuturnity

N diuturnity, a long time, a length of time, an age, a century, an eternity, slowness, perpetuity, blue moon, coon's age, dog's age, durableness, durability, persistence, endlessness, lastingness, continuance, standing, permanence, survival, survivance, longevity, distance of time, protraction of time, prolongation of time, extension of time, delay, durable, lasting, of long duration, of long-standing, permanent, endless, chronic, long-standing, intransient, intransitive, intransmutable, persistent, lifelong, livelong, longeval, long-lived, macrobiotic, diuturnal, evergreen, perennial, sempervirent, sempervirid, unrelenting, unintermitting, unremitting, perpetual, lingering, protracted, prolonged, spun out, long-pending, long-winded, slow, long, for a long time, for an age, for ages, for ever so long, for many a long day, long ago, longo intervallo, all the day long, all the year round, the livelong day, as the day is long, morning noon and night, hour after hour, day after day, for good, permanently.

Stability

N stability, immutability, unchangeability unchangeableness, constancy, stable equilibrium, immobility, soundness, vitality, stabiliment, stiffness, ankylosis, solidity, aplomb, establishment, fixture, rock, pillar, tower, foundation, leopard's spots, Ethiopia's skin, permanence, obstinacy, unchangeable, immutable, unaltered, unalterable, not to be changed, constant, permanent, invariable, undeviating, stable, durable, perennial, fixed, steadfast, firm, fast, steady, balanced, confirmed, valid, fiducial, immovable, irremovable, riveted, rooted, settled, established, vested, incontrovertible, stereotyped, indeclinable, tethered, anchored, moored, at anchor, on a rock, rock solid, firm as a rock, firmly seated, firmly established, deep-rooted, ineradicable, inveterate, obstinate, transfixed, stuck fast, aground, high and dry, stranded, stuck, jammed, unremovable, quiescent, deterioration, indefeasible, irretrievable, intransmutable, incommutable, irresoluble, irrevocable, irreversible, reverseless, inextinguishable, irreducible, indissoluble, indissolvable, indestructible, undying, imperishable, incorruptible, indelible, indeciduous, insusceptible, insusceptible of change, Int, stet, littera scripta manet.

Vegetable

N vegetable, vegetable kingdom, flora, verdure, plant, tree, shrub, bush, creeper, herb, herbage, grass, annual, perennial, biennial, triennial, exotic, timber, forest, wood, woodlands, timberland, hurst, frith, holt, weald, park, chase, greenwood, brake, grove, copse, coppice, bocage, tope, clump of trees, thicket, spinet, spinney, underwood, brushwood, scrub, boscage, bosk, ceja, chaparal, motte, arboretum, bush, jungle, prairie, heath, heather, fern, bracken, furze, gorse, whin, grass, turf, pasture, pasturage, turbary, sedge, rush, weed, fungus, mushroom, toadstool, lichen, moss, conferva, mold, growth, alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan, blow, blowth, floret, petiole, pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia, foliage, branch, bough, ramage, stem, tigella, spray, leaf, flower, blossom, bine, flowering plant, timber tree, fruit tree, pulse, legume, vegetable, vegetal, vegetive, vegitous, herbaceous, herbal, botanic, sylvan, silvan, arborary, arboreous, arborescent, arborical, woody, grassy, verdant, verdurous, floral, mossy, lignous, ligneous, wooden, leguminous, vosky, cespitose, turf-like, turfy, endogenous, exogenous, green-robed senators of mighty woods, this is the forest primeval.