Meaning of permanent in English

permanent
adjective
us

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/ˈpɝː.mə.nənt/ uk

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/ˈpɜː.mə.nənt/
B1
lasting for a long time or forever:
She is looking for a permanent place to stay.
Are you looking for a temporary or a permanent job?
The disease can cause permanent damage to the brain.
A semi-permanent hair dye will wash out after about three months.
He entered the United States in 1988 as a permanent resident because of his marriage to a U.S. citizen.
Something that is permanent exists or happens all the time:
Mont Blanc has a permanent snow cap.
Our office is in a permanent state of chaos.
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permanent
noun [ C ]
us

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/ˈpɝː.mə.nənt/ uk

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/ˈpɜː.mə.nənt/
US
(also perm); (formal permanent wave)
a chemical process that makes your hair curly, or a hairstyle that is created in this way
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(Definition of permanent from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

permanent | Intermediate English

permanent
adjective [ not gradable ]
us

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/ˈpɜr·mə·nənt/
lasting for a long time or forever:
Are you looking for a temporary job or something permanent?
He entered the United States in 1988 as a permanent resident with a green card.

permanence

noun [ U ] us

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/ˈpɜr·mə·nəns/

permanently

adverb [ not gradable ] us

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/ˈpɜr·mə·nənt·li/
The accident left him permanently paralyzed.
(Definition of permanent from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

permanent | Business English

permanent
adjective
  HR
uk

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/ˈpɜːmənənt/ us

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used to describe something, for example a job or contract, that lasts for a long time:
permanent job/contract/employment 66% of last year's graduates found permanent employment within six months of leaving university.
Robinson is hoping to be given the job on a permanent basis.
used to describe someone who is employed for a long time:
permanent employee/worker/staff The bank employs 825 permanent staff at sites in London and Chelmsford.
Compare
temporary
See also
regular adjective
(Definition of permanent from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of permanent

permanent
Only about 5,000 units of permanent, new housing have been built.
From NPR
That tells us that a large part of the drop we see is permanent.
From USA TODAY
There is a possibility of a permanent underclass.
From Huffington Post
For some scholars, warfare started after certain groups of humans stopped moving around and started building permanent settlements.
From The Verge
The only thing that actually is permanent is the ability to leave children to come after you.
From VentureBeat
The failure to ever realize those much better modes of being would count as an existential risk if it were permanent.
From The Atlantic
You see, sometimes people get permanent tattoos -- then later regret them and want them removed.
From Gizmodo
He said it was too soon to tell just what the extent of her permanent injuries would be.
From The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
Indeed, that may be the only way to really make any kind of permanent settlement work.
From Wired
It goes to show how much the market has changed here, but that isn't necessarily permanent.
From Bloomberg
Ear trauma is permanent, with no real treatment.
From The Atlantic
And he wanted to make the most of it, and to have a permanent record in both words and art.
From NPR
A permanent structure could allow some farmers to attend more than once a week.
From Los Angeles Times
Permanent residents can work and live in the country and are expected to pay taxes, but can not vote.
From ABC News
I took a one-year sabbatical that turned out to be permanent.
From NPR
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Translations of permanent

in Chinese (Traditional)
長久的, 永久的，永恆的, 常在的…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
长久的, 永久的，永恒的, 常在的…
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in Spanish
permanente, permanente [masculine-feminine, singular]…
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in Portuguese
permanente…
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in more languages
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Arabic
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Korean
in Ukrainian
in Italian
in Russian
長持ちする, 永続する…
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kalıcı, uzun süreli, sürekli…
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permanent/-ente, permanent…
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permanent…
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دائم…
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trvalý…
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permanent, varig…
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selamanya…
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ถาวร…
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lâu dài…
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trwały…
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kekal…
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ständig…
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permanent, varig, fast…
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영구적인…
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постійний…
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permanente, fisso, definitivo…
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постоянный…
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permanent marker

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