How long something lasts

It was a decayed house of superb proportions, but of a fashion long passed away. Ages back—let musty geologists tell us how long ago—'twas a lake, larger than the Lake of Geneva. I hate to be long at my toilette at any time; but to delay much in such a matter while travelling is folly. She sat straight up in bed, and jerked her hands to her head, and screamed long and terribly. New Word List Word List. From my mother language, "persistence" is what Google Translate comes up with, but I am dissatisfied.

Perenniality from perennial. Permanence is the characteristic of lasting indefinitely or without changing. Imperishability is the characteristic of enduring forever.

Durability is the resilience or robustness that enables something to last for a long time. Endurance conveys the concept you are describing:. How about abides? As in "People come and go but the earth abides. Somewhat surprisingly, eternality "the quality or state of being eternal" turns out to be a recognized word; the OED records it in use as early as the 15th century, and I believe that it would be readily understood by most people, in addition to being evocative enough to make an impression.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? History and Etymology for duration see durance. Learn More About duration. Time Traveler for duration The first known use of duration was in the 14th century See more words from the same century. Phrases Related to duration for the duration. Style: MLA.

English Language Learners Definition of duration. Kids Definition of duration. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Note that between cannot accompany to etc. Confusions of Similar Structures 2 , 4. For , since, from and until are especially useful for indicating an exact duration.

However, for can also indicate inexact ones. It may accompany a vague number expression, like several months or billions of years with -s of after billion- : see Numbers in Spoken English , 3 , or no number word at all. The following examples are all from the Guinlist post Fixed Preposition Phrases :. The underlined phrases here often need lasting instead of for when describing a preceding noun e. Note that for can be left unsaid before any kind of number word, but not always in expressions without one.

One other duration preposition — in — both indicates a length of time and shows that it is the total time needed to complete something:. Using for here would leave the total possible duration of book writing unclear. Finally, note throughout and right through for emphasising total occupation of a time period, and also all in expressions like all along, all day, all year, all the time and all the while see For example, saying rain falls throughout the year means it occurs in all parts of the year.

To suggest only some of a period, during might be preferred. During indicates time location rather than duration. The value of indicating duration with a conjunction rather than adverb or preposition is that it enables verb use in the duration see Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions , 1. On the other hand, there is no obvious conjunction that can, like for , indicate duration without a clear start or end point. Although as, when and while can introduce extended time periods, these usually indicate when rather than how long see Simultaneous Occurrence.

As long as is perhaps the nearest possibility:. The problem with as long as is that it usually implies a condition as much as a duration see Multi-Word Conjunctions , often equating to provided that :.

One way to indicate duration more clearly in a conjunction-like way is by using an expression that is not strictly a conjunction but behaves like one. My best suggestion is all the time when.

Replacing as long as in d with this clearly indicates duration. Connectors help two related ideas to be expressed in two sentences rather than one see Conjunctions versus Connectors. The main possibilities for expressing duration appear to be all this time and all along.

However, these will not always be appropriate, and it is common instead to start a new sentence with what I call a connector synonym — something like This lasted… or It took…for this… , where a noun or pronoun like this representing the previously-mentioned event or situation links with one of the duration verbs suggested below.

Some verbs express duration in combination with a time expression. Quite often, the meaning of these verbs can also be conveyed without them.