Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Continuing without interruption. See Synonyms at continual.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Continued or repeated without interruption or intermission; unceasing; ceaseless: as, incessant rains; incessant clamor.
- Synonyms Continuous, Incessant, Continual, Perpetual; unremitting, unremitted. Continuous means unbroken, and is passive; incessant means unceasing, and is active. The former is preferable to note duration, condition, or result; the latter, to describe the exertion by which the condition or result is produced. We speak of a continuous or an incessant fever, according as we think of the fever as a state or as an activity; and similarly of a continuous or incessant strain of music, and the continuous or incessant murmur of a brook; but only of a continuous railroad-track or telegraph-wire. Continual regularly implies the habitual or repeated renewals of an act, state, etc.: as, a continual succession of storms. In the Bible continual is sometimes used for continuous, but the distinction here indicated is now clearly established. Perpetual is continuous with the idea of lastingness: as, perpetual motion. It is often used in the sense of continual: as, I am sick of such perpetual bickerings. In either sense, unless the thing is really everlasting, it is used by hyperbole, as implying that one sees no end to the matter. See eternal.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Continuing or following without interruption; unceasing; unitermitted; uninterrupted; continual.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing
Etymologies
- Middle English incessaunte, from Late Latin incessāns, incessant- : Latin in-, not; see in-1 + Latin cessāns, present participle of cessāre, to stop; see cease. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Debra White Hayes couldn't sleep through the noise, which she described as incessant droning "like monsters.”
“What has been called the "incessant ovulation" of modern women causes chronic anemia and may have more severe lifetime effects including increased risk of cervical, uterine and breast cancers, and osteoporosis.”
The Huffington Post: Valerie Tarico: Picture a Technology Revolution. In Contraception. It's Here.
“Anorexia nervosa is characterized by the incessant pursuit of thinness, an intense fear of gaining weight, a distorted body image, and a refusal to maintain a normal body weight.”
“How could I ever forget, Jenny dear, that between you and me there was a whole life almost twice as long as yours, and more than half of it spent in incessant humiliation, defeat, and sorrow?”
“Yet still I was in the dark, nor can I guess what they mean, unless they call incessant electioneering, without pause or interval for a single day, for a single hour, of their whole existence, “a glorious institution.””
“What has been called the "incessant ovulation" of modern women may have more severe lifetime effects including increased risk of cervical, uterine and breast cancers, and osteoporosis.”
“Next I call his incessant raises with J5 diamonds.”
“Neighbors recall incessant screams and gunshots from inside, and the sight of prisoners being hanged by their thumbs from a tree in the garden.”
“He also recalls his incessant pimpage of Old Man's War and how another author took issue with said pimpage.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘incessant’.
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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June Words
Words for June
connive, incessant, premeditated, malice, malicious, spite, vindictive, vindicate, vengeance, obstinately, assiduous, attentive and 14 more...
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Adjectives
anodyne, incessant, unbroken, malcontent, furtive, evocative, lithe, fugacious, aleatory, indelible, ephemeral, paltry
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, I
irenic, inimical, ignotism, infrangible, internecine, illumine, ingot, imposter, iconoclast, indefeasible, indefatigable, impingement and 184 more...
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Words
Playa
schadenfreude, quixotic, serendipity, loquacious, ubiquitous, aforementioned, inherently, superfluous, dissonance, tersely, poignant, plethora and 108 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Out of Book Words
commiserate, equanimity, dulcet, cursory, diffident, profligate, egregious, precocious, dissemble, aggregate, efficacy, ingenuous and 100 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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The Most Beautiful Words in the Engli...
mellifluous, obscure, star-crossed, undulating, solstice, messiah, audacious, solace, twilight, wanderlust, lovelorn, byzantine and 219 more...
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wunderkammer's Words
smarmy, bubkes, elucidate, togs, aeolian, carp, kibosh, bosky, ramshackle, mange, harpy, effervesce and 163 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL I
iconoclast, idiosyncrasy, ignoble, ignominious, illicit, illusory, illustrious, imbibe, imbue, immaculate, immaterial, immolate and 155 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
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