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.

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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

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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

Explanation

Something that is fleeting or short-lived is ephemeral, like a fly that lives for one day or text messages flitting from cellphone to cellphone. Ephemeral (ə-FEM-ər-əl) was originally a medical term with the specific meaning "lasting only one day," as a fever or sickness (Hemera means "day" in Greek.) The word became more general, coming to mean "lasting a short time," covering the life spans of plants or insects and then eventually anything that is fleeting or transitory. A related word is the plural noun ephemera, meaning "things that are meant to last for only a short time." Posters for a rock concert are often ephemera, unless the band is so famous that they get saved and sold on eBay.

Example Sentences

See Vija Celmins’s expanses of wave-capped oceans, which remain as delicate and ephemeral in drypoint as they are in oil.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

This is not a documentary feature stuffed with detailed historical context, talking heads contemplating Jacobs’ impact, and stretches of runtime devoted to quietly pondering what legacy looks like in an ephemeral business.

From Salon • Mar. 27, 2026

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 • Feb. 6, 2026

"And yet they don't necessarily form a crater, or they form ephemeral surface disturbances, but they're not the classic major craters that come from direct impacts."

From Science Daily • Dec. 19, 2025

Indeed, its existence is so ephemeral that medical researchers are unable, without special procedures, to sample it before the body has destroyed it.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

Related Words

• fleeting
• short-lived
• transitory