ephemeral

American  

[ih-fem-er-uhl] / ɪˈfɛm ər əl /

adjective

1. lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory.

   The poem celebrates the ephemeral joys of childhood.

   Synonyms:

   brief, momentary, transient, evanescent, fleeting

   Antonyms:

   permanent

2. (of flowers or insects) lasting only a few days or less.

   Lily of the valley is an ephemeral flower.

3. being of temporary value or passing interest.

   She had a scrapbook full of ephemeral news clippings about forgotten events.

4. Computers.

   1. being or relating to messages, images, or other data that are written to temporary or virtual storage only, and are therefore liable to change or be lost unless copied to permanent storage immediately or within a very short time.

      Snapchat is an ephemeral messaging app.

   2. being or relating to a temporary storage medium, especially a virtual one.

      In case of a hardware failure this data will be lost, as it is only stored locally on an ephemeral drive.

---

noun

1. anything short-lived, such as certain flowers and insects.

ephemeral British  

/ ɪˈfɛmərəl /

adjective

1. lasting for only a short time; transitory; short-lived

   ephemeral pleasure

---

noun

1. a short-lived organism, such as the mayfly

2. a plant that completes its life cycle in less than one year, usually less than six months

Other Word Forms

• ephemerality noun
• ephemerally adverb
• ephemeralness noun
• nonephemeral adjective
• nonephemerally adverb
• unephemeral adjective
• unephemerally adverb

Etymology

Origin of ephemeral

First recorded in 1570–80; from Greek ephḗmer(os) “short-lived, lasting a day” (from ep- ep- + hēmér(a) “day” + -os, adjective suffix) + -al ¹

Example Sentences

And the chair would be something worthy of as much lunch discussion as any horrific international crisis or ephemeral gossip.

From Salon

Many are ephemeral; fleeting leaf sculptures that blow away into the forest or giant snowballs placed in the city of London which melted to disclose sticks and stones.

From BBC

The courts have yet to rule on tariffs and impoundments, and those “savings” could prove ephemeral.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the meantime Wicks, who hopes to stage a show later this year that intermixes dance with tarot themes, has created an experience that uses modern augmented reality technology and yet feels ephemeral.

From Los Angeles Times

As the already ephemeral freeze-thaw cycle is compressed or diminished, it might be possible, in Canada, to extend the country’s sugar-maple forests by planting trees north of the existing ones.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• fleeting
• short-lived
• transitory