perennial
adjective
Did you know?
When you hear perennial, you probably think of peonies rather than pines. The word today typically describes (or, as a noun, refers to) plants that die back seasonally but produce new growth in the spring. But this wasn’t the word’s initial meaning: originally, perennial was equivalent to evergreen, used, as that word is, for plants that remain with us all year. We took this "throughout the year" sense straight from the Romans, whose Latin word perennis combined per- ("throughout") with a form of annus ("year"). The poet Ovid, writing around the beginning of the first millennium, used the Latin word to refer to a "perennial spring" (a water source), and the scholar Pliny used it of birds that don't migrate. Perennial retains these same uses today, for streams and occasionally for birds, but the word has long since branched out to encompass several other senses, including "constant" (as in "a perennial bestseller") and "recurring" (as in "the perennial joy of reading Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day").
Examples of perennial in a Sentence
Michael Kinsley, Time, 29 Oct. 2001
The issue between science and art is of perennial interest to me, since I started off in science in college, in medicine, was headed for psychiatry, and ended up writing novels …
—Walker Percy, "The State Of The Novel," 1977,
in Signposts in a Strange Land, 1991
… scientists are warning that a perennial viral threat, the upcoming flu season, could be far more dangerous than usual—more evidence that these tiny foes are responsible for a large share of human suffering.
—Claudia Wallis, Time, 3 Nov. 1986
This variety of oregano is perennial.
Flooding is a perennial problem for people living by the river.
Isabelle Kliger, Forbes.com, 3 July 2025
Their reputation as perennial underachievers outside of France was shattered by the 2025 Champions League heroics.
—Darren Richman, New York Times, 5 July 2025
The veteran coach has led a team to the NBA Finals, turned perennial losers into playoff threats and helped guide Golden State’s dynasty from the sidelines as an assistant.
—Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 5 July 2025
Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and perennial All-Star Mookie Betts might all hear their names called at some point.
—Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for perennial
Cite this Entry
“Perennial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perennial. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
perennial
adjective
Share