ephemera
Americannoun
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a mayfly, esp one of the genus Ephemera
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something transitory or short-lived
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(functioning as plural) a class of collectable items not originally intended to last for more than a short time, such as tickets, posters, postcards, or labels
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a plural of ephemeron
Etymology
Origin of ephemera
1670–80; < Greek ephḗmera, neuter plural of ephḗmeros, taken as singular; ephemeral
Explanation
Ephemera don't stick around for very long. You might enjoy such ephemera as sunsets and rainbows, things appearing only briefly, and so enjoyed all the more. In Latin, ephemera was a word for a fever that didn't last long. Today, ephemera is the plural form of ephemeron, which means "something impermanent or lasting only a short time." French historian Fernand Braudel referred to events as “the ephemera of history,” likening them to fireflies that light the dark for just a moment.
Vocabulary lists containing ephemera
This Week in Words: November 24 - 30, 2018
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The Cuckoo's Calling
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This Week In Culture: December 28, 2019–January 3, 2020
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s clear that “Forbidden Fruits” director and co-writer Meredith Alloway has marinated in plenty of ’90s teen movies and the kitschy pop-culture ephemera of that era.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
Contemporaries were convinced that his motivation for publishing Mansfield’s ephemera wasn’t so much reverence for her talent as greed for hard cash.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
How well can you recall the past 250 years of books, music, movies and other cultural ephemera that makes up our country?
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 28, 2026
Stomach gnawing and hands slightly shaky, I loaded up on ephemera for fancy paninis, held together with swipes of giardiniera mayo, and splurged on some pastel-hued botanical sodas for drinking straight from the can.
From Salon • Jan. 1, 2026
Life is too brief to be spent upon ephemera; let us go back from our wanderings in the wilderness of new books, and draw nearer to the wells of English undefiled.
From Home Life of Great Authors by Griswold, Hattie Tyng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
