Word.ws English Dictionary

perseverate

UK/pəːˈsɛvəɹeɪt/US/pɚˈsɛvəˌɹeɪt/

perseverate verb: to persist in doing something; to continue to repeat an action after the original stimulus has ended.

Verb

perseverate (third-person singular simple present perseverates, present participle perseverating, simple past and past participle perseverated)

  1. (intransitive) To persist in doing something; to continue to repeat an action after the original stimulus has ended.
    • After perseverating for several more months, Woodrow Wilson accepted the offer.2013, A Scott Berg, Wilson, Berkley, published 2014, page 84
  2. (transitive) To cause the perseveration of (a given reflex or response).

Synonyms of perseverate

Forms of perseverate

third-person singular presentperseverates
present participleperseverating
past participleperseverated
pastperseverated

Origin of perseverate

Back-formation from perseveration. Doublet of persevere.

Words formed from perseverate

Questions about perseverate

What does perseverate mean?
Perseverate means to persist in doing something; to continue to repeat an action after the original stimulus has ended.
What part of speech is perseverate?
Perseverate is a verb.
How do you pronounce perseverate?
Perseverate is pronounced /pəːˈsɛvəɹeɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of perseverate?
The past tense of perseverate is perseverated.

Words near perseverate in the dictionary

  1. perseverance
  2. perseverance of the saints
  3. perseverances
  4. perseverant
  5. perseverantly
  6. perseverate
  7. perseverated
  8. perseverates
  9. perseverating
  10. perseveration
  11. perseverations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: perseverate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “perseverate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perseverate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.