EPHEMERAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ephemeral mean? 

• EPHEMERAL (noun)
  The noun EPHEMERAL has 1 sense:

1. anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

  Familiarity information: EPHEMERAL used as a noun is very rare.

• EPHEMERAL (adjective)
  The adjective EPHEMERAL has 1 sense:

1. lasting a very short time

  Familiarity information: EPHEMERAL used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EPHEMERAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

ephemeral; ephemeron

Hypernyms ("ephemeral" is a kind of...):

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

• EPHEMERAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lasting a very short time

Synonyms:

ephemeral; fugacious; passing; short-lived; transient; transitory

Context example:

fugacious blossoms

Similar:

impermanent; temporary (not permanent; not lasting)

Derivation:

ephemera (something transitory; lasting a day)

ephemerality; ephemeralness (the property of lasting for a very short time)

 Context examples 

Nothing is ephemeral with Saturn, for Saturn rules the concept of time and the importance of planning for the long road ahead.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Because species interactions are both ubiquitous and ephemeral, according to lead researcher Alexander Badyaev, the theory has been notoriously difficult to test.

(Colorful bird feathers offer evolutionary clues, National Science Foundation)

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.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)