imperishable means not perishable; not subject to decay; enduring permanently. It carries an Arena rating of 1682, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, imperishable ranks #2,781 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,601 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #4,296 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,021 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
Why “imperishable” is a great word
Not subject to decay, destruction, or deterioration; enduring permanently. From Middle French *impérissable*, from the assimilated Latin *im-* ("not") and *perishable* (from Old French *periss-*, stem of *perir*, "to perish"), first recorded in English between 1640 and 1650. Unlike "durable" (which suggests a long resistance before a final yielding) or "indestructible" (which speaks to defiance of force, but not necessarily of time), imperishable denotes an absolute, permanent immunity. It is the honey sealed in an Egyptian tomb, still golden after three millennia; the ivory of a mammoth tusk, preserved in permafrost since before human memory; the particular stillness of a photograph of someone long dead, their expression caught in chemical suspension, outlasting the very flesh it records. The word carries a faint melancholy, for what we call imperishable is usually what we have already lost.
Etymology
From Middle French impérissable. See im- + perishable.
adj
- Not perishable; not subject to decay; enduring permanently.e.g.“an imperishable monument”
noun
- something that does not perish, or keeps for a long time
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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