Meanings
- not comparableIn a manner without pause or stop, especially to the point of annoyance; not ceasing.
He jabbered incessantly and annoyed everyone.
4 more examples
We see the eye subdued, the practised smile, / The word well weighed before it pass the lip, / And know not of the misery within: / Yet there it works incessantly, and fears / The time to come; for time is terrible, / Avenging, and betraying.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Confession”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 136There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.
1865, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Shipwreck”, in [Sophia Thoreau; William Ellery Channing], editors, Cape Cod, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 14"You are old, Father William," the young man said, / "And your hair has become very white; / And yet you incessantly stand on your head— / Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Advice from a Caterpillar”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, [poem “You Are Old, Father William”], page 63But just there a small hairy terrier exploded out at the gate, like a floor-mop impelled by some sort of internal combustion, which sent him off into a frenzy of yapping, incessantly jerked backwards by the explosive force of his own detonations.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 59Synonyms: ceaselessly, continuously, unremittingly, ceaselessly, consecutively, constantly, continently, continually
- not comparableobsoleteImmediately.
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbIn a manner without pause or stop, especially to the point of annoyance; not ceasing.
More synonyms by meaning
adverbwith unflagging resolve
adverbinvariably
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Basque etengabe, etenik gabe
- etengabein a manner without pause or stop
- etenik gabein a manner without pause or stop
Catalan incessantment
- incessantmentin a manner without pause or stop
Chinese Mandarin 不斷 /不断, 不止
- 不斷 /不断 (bùduàn)in a manner without pause or stop
- 不止 (bùzhǐ)in a manner without pause or stop
- 不迭 (bùdié)in a manner without pause or stop
Dutch onophoudelijk, aanhoudend
- onophoudelijkin a manner without pause or stop
- aanhoudendin a manner without pause or stop
- onophoudendin a manner without pause or stop
Esperanto senĉese
- senĉesein a manner without pause or stop
Finnish herkeämättä, lakkaamatta
- herkeämättäin a manner without pause or stop
- lakkaamattain a manner without pause or stop
- tauottain a manner without pause or stop
- jatkuvastiin a manner without pause or stop
French incessamment, sans cesse
- incessammentin a manner without pause or stop
- sans cessein a manner without pause or stop
- d’arrache-piedin a manner without pause or stop
German ständig, immerzu
- ständigin a manner without pause or stop
- immerzuin a manner without pause or stop
- fortwährendin a manner without pause or stop
- unaufhörlichin a manner without pause or stop
- in einem fortin a manner without pause or stop
Hindi निरंतर
- निरंतर (nirantar)in a manner without pause or stop
Hungarian állandóan, szüntelenül
- állandóanin a manner without pause or stop
- szüntelenülin a manner without pause or stop
Italian incessantemente
- incessantementein a manner without pause or stop
Japanese 引っ切り無し
- 引っ切り無し (hikkirinashi)in a manner without pause or stop
Norwegian ustanselig
- ustanseligin a manner without pause or stop
Polish bezustannie
- bezustanniein a manner without pause or stop
Portuguese incessantemente
- incessantementein a manner without pause or stop
Romanian fără oprire, neîncetat
- fără oprirein a manner without pause or stop
- neîncetatin a manner without pause or stop
Russian беспреста́нно, непреры́вно
- беспреста́нно (besprestánno)in a manner without pause or stop
- непреры́вно (neprerývno)in a manner without pause or stop
- постоя́нно (postojánno)in a manner without pause or stop
- бесконе́чно (beskonéčno)in a manner without pause or stop
Scottish Gaelic daonnan, an còmhnaidh
- daonnanin a manner without pause or stop
- an còmhnaidhin a manner without pause or stop
- gu sìorin a manner without pause or stop
Slovak neprestajne
- neprestajnein a manner without pause or stop
Spanish incesantemente, sin cesar
- incesantementein a manner without pause or stop
- sin cesarin a manner without pause or stop
Vietnamese hoài
- hoàiin a manner without pause or stop
Cite this entry
incessantly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incessantly
“incessantly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incessantly. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “incessantly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incessantly.
Source: incessantly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.