self-perpetuating

adjective

Causing itself to continue to exist.

“It's a self-perpetuating error, now that we've made it, we can't fix it without breaking things that depend on it.”

OriginEnglish perpetuating ← Middle English self- ← Old English self- →
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Meanings

adjectiveself-perpetuating (comparative more self-perpetuating, superlative most self-perpetuating)

comparative more self-perpetuating · superlative most self-perpetuating

  1. Causing itself to continue to exist.

    It's a self-perpetuating error, now that we've made it, we can't fix it without breaking things that depend on it.

    1 more example

    The committee was self-perpetuating: all it did was hold a meeting to decide when the next meeting was, and consume funds to do so.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*swé?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
  3. Proto-Germanic*selbaz
  4. Old Englishself
  5. Old Englishself-
  6. Middle Englishself-
  7. Englishself-
  8. Englishperpetuating
  9. Englishself-perpetuating

From self- + perpetuating.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: self-perpetuating on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.