incessant

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English incessaunte, from Late Latin incessāns, incessantem, from Latin in- +‎ cessāns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɛs.ənt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: in‧ces‧sant
• Rhymes: -ɛsənt

Adjective

incessant (comparative more incessant, superlative most incessant)

1. Without pause or stop; not ending, especially to the point of annoyance.

   Synonyms: unremitting, continuous, unceasing

   The dog's incessant barking kept the girl awake all night.

   • 1807, George Campbell, Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, page 274:

     […] incessant interferings and bickerings, in every country, between the secular powers and the ecclesiastical.

   • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species:

     The face of Nature may be compared to a yielding surface, with ten thousand sharp wedges packed close together and driven inwards by incessant blows, sometimes one wedge being struck, and then another with greater force.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:incessant.

Derived terms

• incessantly
• incessantness

Translations

without pause or stop; not ending

• Arabic: مُسْتَمِرّ (mustamirr), مُتَوَاصِل (mutawāṣil)
• Armenian: անդուլ (hy) (andul)
• Bengali: অবিরত (bn) (obiroto), অনবরত (bn) (onoboroto), অবিরাম (bn) (obiram), অবিশ্রান্ত (bn) (obisranto)
• Bulgarian: непрестанен (bg) (neprestanen), нескончаем (bg) (neskončaem)
• Catalan: incessant (ca)
• Czech: neustálý (cs)
• Danish: uafbrudt, stadig (da), uafladelig, konstant
• Dutch: voortdurend (nl), onophoudelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: senĉesa (eo)
• Finnish: herkeämätön (fi), alituinen (fi), lakkaamaton (fi)
• French: incessant (fr)
• Galician: incesante
• German: ständig (de), unablässig (de), unaufhörlich (de)
• Greek: αδιάλειπτος (el) (adiáleiptos)

  Ancient Greek: ἀδιάλειπτος (adiáleiptos)

• Icelandic: sífelldur, þrálaus, þrálátur, viðstöðulaus, stöðugur
• Irish: síoraí, síor-
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: bênavber (ku), berdewam (ku)

• Latin: assiduus
• Marathi: अविश्रांत n (aviśrānta)
• Occitan: incessant
• Polish: bezustanny (pl)
• Portuguese: incessante (pt)
• Romanian: neîncetat (ro)
• Russian: постоя́нный (ru) (postojánnyj), непреры́вный (ru) (neprerývnyj), беспреры́вный (ru) (besprerývnyj), непрекраща́ющийся (ru) (neprekraščájuščijsja)
• Scottish Gaelic: sìor
• Slovak: ustavičný
• Slovene: nenehen
• Spanish: incesante (es)
• Swedish: oavbruten (sv), oavlåtlig (sv), oupphörlig (sv), ständig (sv)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: آراسز (arasız)

• Ukrainian: безперервний (uk) m (bezperervnyj)

Anagrams

• anticness, cantiness, instances, tenascins

Catalan

Etymology

From in- +‎ cessant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [in.səˈsan]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [in.səˈsant]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [in.seˈsant]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

incessant m or f (masculine and feminine plural incessants)

1. incessant

Derived terms

• incessantment

Related terms

• cessar

Further reading

• “incessant”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “incessant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “incessant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “incessant”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

French

Etymology

From in- +‎ cessant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.sɛ.sɑ̃/ ~ /ɛ̃.se.sɑ̃/

Adjective

incessant (feminine incessante, masculine plural incessants, feminine plural incessantes)

1. incessant, unremitting, constant, non-stop

Derived terms

• incessamment

See also

• sans cesse

Further reading

• “incessant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• instances

Latin

Verb

incessant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of incessō