persist

per·sist
P3E1R1S1I1S1T1
US/pɚˈsɪst/UK/pəˈsɪst/

verb

To go on stubbornly or resolutely.

Less commonScrabble 9

Meanings

verbpersist (third-person singular simple present persists, present participle persisting, simple past and past participle persisted)

present singular third person persists · participle present persisting · participle past persisted · past persisted

  1. intransitiveTo go on stubbornly or resolutely.
    1 more example

    There is a way in which Britain is certain to have war and its horrors and calamities; it is this--by persisting in her present course of unpreparedness, her apathy, unintelligence, and blindness, and in her disregard of the warnings of the most ordinary political insight, as well as of the example of history.

    1912, Norman Angell, Peace Theories and the Balkan War

    Synonyms: persevere

  2. intransitiveTo repeat an utterance.
  3. intransitiveTo continue to exist.

    Throughout the period, toothy giants persisted in the oceans. Perhaps the most spectacular was the megalodon shark.

    2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 139
    1 more example

    Much of this prejudice, indeed, persists; for instance, in the heavy handicappings with which insurance companies saddle their West Indian policies, […]

    1868, The British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review, page 238

    Synonyms: last

  4. copulativeintransitiveobsoleteTo continue to be; to remain.

    Synonyms: hold

  5. transitivecomputingTo cause to persist; make permanent.

    This would not be saved after his session terminates because we don't have an actual user identity to allow us to persist the settings.

    2006, Marco Bellinaso, ASP.NET 2.0 Website Programming
    1 more example

    While hashtags aren't formally part of Twitter, some clients, such as Tweetdeck, will persist hashtags across replies to create a sort of message threading.

    2009, Alistair Croll, Sean Power, Complete Web Monitoring

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo go on stubbornly or resolutely.

Similar

verbTo continue to exist.

Similar

verbTo continue to be; to remain.

Similar

More synonyms by meaning

verbcontinue to exist

Broader

verbbe persistent, refuse to stop

verbbe in a certain place and not leave

Broader
stay in place

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latinpersistere
  2. Middle Frenchpersister
  3. Englishpersist

From Middle French persister (Modern French persister), from Latin persistere, from per- + sistere (“to stand”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic ثَابَرَ
  • ثَابَرَ (ṯābara)continue to exist
Bulgarian настоявам, упорствам
  • настоявам (nastojavam)go on stubbornly or resolutely
  • упорствам (uporstvam)go on stubbornly or resolutely
  • устоявам (ustojavam)continue to exist
Catalan persistir
  • persistircontinue to exist
Chinese Mandarin 堅持 /坚持
  • 堅持 /坚持 (jiānchí)continue to exist
Danish fortsætte, vedblive
  • fortsættego on stubbornly or resolutely
  • vedblivego on stubbornly or resolutely
  • fortsættecontinue to exist
  • vedblivecontinue to exist
Dutch volharden
  • volhardencontinue to exist
Esperanto persisto
  • persistogo on stubbornly or resolutely
Finnish itsepintaisesti pitää kiinni, pysyä järkähtämättömänä
  • itsepintaisesti pitää kiinnicontinue to exist
  • pysyä järkähtämättömänäcontinue to exist
  • olla edelleen olemassacontinue to exist
French persister
  • persistercontinue to exist
German beharren
  • beharrencontinue to exist
Hebrew עמד
  • עמד (amád)go on stubbornly or resolutely
Hungarian kitart, ragaszkodik
  • kitartgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • ragaszkodikgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • rendületlenülgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • kitartóango on stubbornly or resolutely
  • fennállcontinue to exist
  • fennmaradcontinue to exist
  • tovább élcontinue to exist
  • folytatódikcontinue to exist
Italian persistere, persistere
  • persisterego on stubbornly or resolutely
  • persisterecontinue to exist
Japanese 固執する, 言い張る
  • 固執する (koshitsu-suru)continue to exist
  • 言い張る (iiharu)continue to exist
  • 貫く (tsuranuku)continue to exist
  • 持続する (tsuranuku)continue to exist
  • 残存する (tsuranuku)continue to exist
  • 尾を引く (tsuranuku)continue to exist
Korean 고집하다
  • 고집하다 (gojiphada)continue to exist
Latin persistō, persevērō
  • persistōgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • persevērōgo on stubbornly or resolutely
Māori whakakeke, hohota
  • whakakekego on stubbornly or resolutely
  • hohotago on stubbornly or resolutely
  • okego on stubbornly or resolutely
  • whakakekecontinue to exist
Portuguese persistir
  • persistircontinue to exist
Russian упо́рствовать, выживать
  • упо́рствовать (upórstvovatʹ)go on stubbornly or resolutely
  • выживать (vyživatʹ)continue to exist
Scottish Gaelic lean air, lean
  • lean airgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • leancontinue to exist
Spanish persistir
  • persistircontinue to exist
Swedish envisas, framhärda
  • envisasgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • framhärdacontinue to exist
Thai ยืนหยัด
  • ยืนหยัด (yʉʉn-yàt)go on stubbornly or resolutely
Turkish sebat etmek, vazgeçmemek
  • sebat etmekgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • vazgeçmemekgo on stubbornly or resolutely
  • sürdürmekcontinue to exist
  • sürmekcontinue to exist
Vietnamese kiên trì
  • kiên trìcontinue to exist

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with persist

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

persist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/persist

MLA

“persist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/persist. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “persist,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/persist.

Source: persist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.