Which term to use when referring to functional data structures: persistent or immutable?

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Published on 2010-03-24T17:13:29Z Indexed on 2010/03/24 17:23 UTC
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language-agnostic

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terminology

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functional-programming

In the context of functional programming which is the correct term to use: persistent or immutable? When I Google "immutable data structures" I get a Wikipedia link to an article on "Persistent data structure" which even goes on to say:

such data structures are effectively immutable

Which further confuses things for me. Do functional programs rely on persistent data structures or immutable data structures? Or are they always the same thing?

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