PERMANENT definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary (2025)

Something that is permanent lasts for ever.

Heavy drinking can cause permanent damage to the brain.

...a permanent solution to the problem.

The ban is intended to be permanent.

permanently adverb [ADVERB with verb, ADVERB adjective] B2

His reason had been permanently affected by what he had witnessed.

The only way to lose weight permanently is to completely change your attitudes toward food.

permanence uncountable noun

Anything which threatens the permanence of the treaty is a threat to peace. [+ of]

permanency uncountable noun

They gradually realized the permanency of their condition.

You use permanent to describe situations or states that keep occurring or which seem to exist all the time; used especially to describe problems or difficulties.

...a permanent state of tension.

They feel under permanent threat.

There was a permanent 20-yard queue for the portable toilets.

permanently adverb B1+

...the heavy, permanently locked gate.

A permanent employee is one who is employed for an unlimited length of time.

At the end of the probationary period you will become a permanent employee.

...a permanent job.

permanently adverb [ADVERB with verb] B1+

...permanently employed registered dockers.

Your permanent home or your permanent address is the one at which you spend most of your time or the one that you return to after having stayed in other places.

York Cottage was as near to a permanent home as the children knew.

They had no permanent address.

A permanent is a treatment where a hair stylist curls your hair and treats it with a chemical so that it stays curly for several months.

[US]regional note: in BRIT, use perm

1.

existing or intended to exist for an indefinite period

a permanent structure

2.

a permanent condition

1.

2.

3.

a hair wave that is produced as by applying chemical preparations and that remains even after the hair is washed

1.

2.

intended to exist or function for a long, indefinite period without regard to unforeseeable conditions

a permanent employee

the permanent headquarters of the United Nations

3.

permanent pleating

permanent ink

4. Also called: permanent wave

a wave or curl that is set into the hair by the application of a special chemical preparation and that remains for a number of months