Showing results for "ephemera"

• plural of ephemeron.

ephemera

American  

[ih-fem-er-uh] / ɪˈfɛm ər ə /

noun

• ephemeras,
  plural
• ephemerae
  plural

1. a plural of ephemeron.

2. an ephemerid.

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ephemera British  

/ ɪˈfɛmərə /

noun

1. a mayfly, esp one of the genus Ephemera

2. something transitory or short-lived

3. (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

4. a plural of ephemeron

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ephemerae
  plural
• ephemeras
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ephemera

1670–80; < Greek ephḗmera, neuter plural of ephḗmeros, taken as singular; see 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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ephemera ephemerae ephemeras

The Wende’s Soviet Hippie collection contains ephemera that dovetails with the current moment, and aims to “illuminate the political and cultural changes of the past” and “offer opportunities to make sense of a changing present.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

The new complex’s museum presents a bland, uninspiring collection of ephemera.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

The facility will include state-of-the-art, climate-controlled storage for the museum’s more than 250,000-object collection of paintings, sculptures, photographs, tapestries and Cold War-era ephemera from the Soviet Union, East Bloc, China and other countries.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2026

Games back then were rapt-audience monuments, not ephemera to glance at while futzing around group texts and prediction market apps.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026

In reference to the question, Can ephemera have a moral law?

From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by William Rounseville Alger

Scanning the globe and the human ephemerae upon it from the point of view of a millionaire in years, Wells still considers that "Nazi Germany may well bring down conclusive disaster on our species."

From Time Magazine Archive

Above, against the slaty-gray cloud-wrack, four exquisite slender girl-forms appeared, with loose hair, silver-gray drapery and gauzy wings as of ephemerae, flying in pursuit of the cloud.

From A Crystal Age by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

I do not, however, mean to say that they are the same flies, but more probably successive generations of ephemerae of the same species.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 324, July 26, 1828 by Various

Born of the sunshine, on a morning in late December, gray ephemerae danced and dipped and fashioned vanishing patterns against the green of the great laurel at the corner of Drift farmyard.

From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts

A curious thing about that night was a swarm of ephemerae so dense that it was like a blinding snowstorm.

From Philip Gilbert Hamerton An Autobiography, 1834-1858, and a Memoir by His Wife, 1858-1894 by Philip Gilbert Hamerton

To talk of "relaxations," whether in cultural or political control, or of economic or social reform, is to talk of ephemeras.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• collectibles