Ongoing means continuing to happen right now, not finished yet. When something is ongoing, it started in the past and is still active in the present.

A scientist might have an ongoing research project that she works on year after year. Your friendship with your best friend is ongoing: it started when you met and continues today. If a teacher says there's an ongoing problem with students talking during quiet reading time, she means it keeps happening and hasn't been solved yet.

The word emphasizes continuous process and duration. An ongoing construction project has workers showing up day after day. An ongoing investigation means detectives are still gathering evidence. When your parents talk about the ongoing challenge of keeping the house clean, they mean it's something they deal with constantly, not something that gets finished and stays done.

Unlike temporary situations that start and stop quickly, ongoing situations have duration and persistence. They're active, alive, and not yet resolved.