Ephemeral

Quick meaning: Ephemeral is an adjective meaning Lasting for a short period of time.

Meaning

Lasting for a short period of time.

More Meanings

1. (biology) Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.
2. (geology, of a body of water) Usually dry, but filling with water for brief periods during and after precipitation.
3. Something which lasts for a short period of time.

Example Sentences

sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal, efficacy

The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.

It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human, sorrows.

1821-1822, Vicesimus Knox, Remarks on the tendency of certain Clauses in a Bill now pending in Parliament to degrade Grammar Schools Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.

Word Forms

• ephemerals

Synonyms for ephemeral

Depending on context, synonyms include earthly, brief, deciduous, evanescent, fleeting, flying.

Antonyms for ephemeral

Common opposites include eternal, lasting, perennial, persistent, permanent, everlasting.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include transitory, short-lived, transient, impermanent, fugacious, temporary.

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