- present participle of fleet.
fleeting
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fleeting
Explanation
Fleeting is an adjective that describes something that happens really fast, or something that doesn’t last as long as you’d like. Driving in a car on the highway, you see a unicorn in the woods, but you only get a fleeting glimpse of it because you’re driving too fast. Bummer. Fleeting comes from the Old English word flēotan, which means “float, swim.” Like a ghost ship floating by on a foggy night, fleeting things disappear as fast as they appear. Fleeting love may last more than a moment, but it won’t stay for very long, and that’s why it’s called fleeting.
Vocabulary lists containing fleeting
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 1
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The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 4
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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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.
Don’t assume future financial setbacks will be fleeting, though.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Researchers must effectively capture a snapshot of that fleeting moment and use the resulting particle patterns to reconstruct the properties of the quark-gluon plasma.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
That’s simply no way to live, and it’s certainly not a way to enjoy a movie as anything deeper or more important than a fleeting experience.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
A winning percentage short of 60% over nearly four years in charge and only fleeting success in implementing a more ambitious, expansive gameplan leaves little goodwill to fall back on.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
The young men scattered and ran for cover, occasionally darting from their protective barricades to give the ball another fleeting whack.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
