- 1the fact of continuing to try to do something despite difficulties, especially when other people are against you and think that you are being annoying or unreasonable His persistence was finally rewarded when the insurance company agreed to pay for the damage. It was her sheer persistence that wore them down in the end.
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- 2the state of continuing to exist for a long period of time the persistence of unemployment in the 1970s and 1980s
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