evanescence
Americannoun
-
the quality of being fleeting or vanishing quickly; impermanence.
the evanescence of dreams.
-
the act or fact of vanishing quickly.
The target audience is left only with the dominant message after the evanescence of the advertisement.
Etymology
Origin of evanescence
Explanation
After you lose a loved one, often you're gripped with a fear of evanescence, or the rapid fading from sight or memory of that person. Evanescence comes from the Latin evanescere meaning "disappear, vanish." Something that possesses qualities of evanescence, has a quality of disappearing or vanishing. The evanescence of a shooting star makes it hard to catch — it's there one moment and gone the next. Evanescence is a word typically used to describe an event that fades from sight or memory, or sometimes the fleeting quality of worldly success.
Vocabulary lists containing evanescence
Power Suffix: -escence
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A Tale of Two Cities
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Stories of Ourselves
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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.
Acoustic Christmas had several bands that hit quite a while ago: Papa Roach, All-American Rejects, Evanescence.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2026
Annaick Guitteny came first in the Portfolios category for a set of six photos with the title Evanescence, each one a close-up of a plant covered in water droplets.
From BBC • Feb. 1, 2024
I saw the film to hear Evanescence on the soundtrack.
From Salon • Apr. 29, 2023
I was also pleased to have the return of Evanescence this year, one of the bands to soundtrack those aforementioned angsty preteen years.
From Slate • Dec. 23, 2020
There is the charm of Evanescence, that which lends to supreme beauty and grace an aureole of Pathos.
From The Raven by Poe, Edgar Allan
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.
