lifelong

lifelong — adjective

1. existing, continuing, or remaining important across someone's entire life, from

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

existing, continuing, or remaining important across someone's entire life, from beginning to end

Example

Sumin considered her lifelong friendship with Rodrigo one of her greatest treasures.

collocation: lifelong friendship

Shirin's lifelong dream of visiting Japan finally came true last spring.

collocation: lifelong dream

Common collocations
  • lifelong friend
  • lifelong dream
  • lifelong passion
  • lifelong learner
  • lifelong member
  • lifelong commitment
  • lifelong habit
  • lifelong love
  • lifelong bond
  • lifeless pursuit
Synonyms
  • permanent

    stronger than lifelong — implies never-ending rather than life-bound; permanent job lasts indefinitely, lifelong job lasts till retirement

  • enduring

    focuses on lasting through difficulties; lifelong simply covers the full span of life

  • lifetime

    used attributively like lifelong (a lifetime achievement), but as a noun it can follow a determiner (a lifetime of work)

Antonyms
  • temporary

    lasting only a short time; the opposite of a commitment that lasts a lifetime

  • brief

    very short duration; a brief friendship contrasts sharply with a lifelong one

Grammar Patterns

lifelong + noun

Usage Note

Only used attributively before a noun (lifelong dream, not *the dream is lifelong). For predicative use, rephrase with lasts a lifetime or continues for life.

Common Mistakes

I have been learning English lifelong.
I have been a lifelong learner of English.
lifelong is an adjective that must go before a noun; use all my life or my whole life as an adverb instead.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Lifelong, permanent, enduring, and lifetime all describe things that last a long time, but they differ in scope and connotation. Lifelong is the most specific — it means exactly 'from birth to death,' so it pairs naturally with friend, dream, passion, or habit. Permanent means 'never changing or ending,' which is broader (a permanent job may or may not last a lifetime). Enduring stresses the ability to survive hardship (an enduring love survives difficult times). Lifetime, grammatically a noun used as an adjective, is very close to lifelong but often appears in more formal or institutional contexts (a lifetime achievement award). You can have a lifelong friendship without it being particularly enduring, and you can have a permanent address that you change after a few years. Choose lifelong when the defining feature is the span of a human life.

lifelong ↗permanent ↗enduringlifetime ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • lifelong friendship
  • lifelong dream
  • lifelong passion
  • lifelong learner
  • lifelong commitment
  • lifelong member
  • lifelong habit
  • lifelong love

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Lifelong is a compound of life and long, formed on the model of older words like livelong. The earliest recorded use in English dates back to the 15th century, carrying the same meaning it has today: 'lasting as long as one lives.'