elinikästä

Elinikästä is a Finnish adjective meaning lifelong or lasting for the duration of a person’s life. It is used to describe things, conditions, or policies that persist throughout an individual’s lifetime or are intended to continue indefinitely. The term is common in educational, health, and welfare discussions, as well as in everyday language when emphasizing long-term or permanent aspects.

In usage, elinikästä typically accompanies a noun and agrees in form with it, taking the partitive form elinikästä in many constructions. For example, elinikäistä oppimista is used with verbs like edistää or rohkaista to indicate lifelong learning, as in “edistää elinikäistä oppimista.” It can also describe care or support that lasts a lifetime, such as “elinikäistä hoitoa tarvitsevat potilaat.” The phrase is versatile and appears in policy documents, educational programs, and health-related discussions.

Related concepts include elinikäinen, a closely related form also meaning lifelong, and elinaikainen, which is sometimes used with similar nuance. In Finnish discourse, elinikäinen oppiminen (lifelong learning) is a common expression in education policy and public administration, reflecting emphasis on continuous learning across a person’s life. As a stylistic note, elinikästä is most frequently seen in written Finnish and formal contexts, while in everyday speech the term may be substituted with more specific phrases depending on the context.