fleeting

American  

[flee-ting] / ˈfli tɪŋ /

adjective

1. passing swiftly; vanishing quickly; transient; transitory.

   fleeting beauty;

   a fleeting glance.

   Synonyms:

   fugitive, brief, flying, passing

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fleeting British  

/ ˈfliːtɪŋ /

adjective

1. rapid and transient

   a fleeting glimpse of the sea

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Other Word Forms

• fleetingly adverb
• fleetingness noun
• unfleeting adjective

Etymology

Origin of fleeting

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English; fleet ² + -ing ²

Example Sentences

October’s windfall also proved fleeting: In January, one of the Hyperliquid accounts lost more than $128 million on an ill-fated bet that ether would rise.

From The Wall Street Journal

Middle Eastern intermediators have been racing for days to get talks going to end the war, but said the gaps between the parties remain enormous and that progress remains fleeting.

From The Wall Street Journal

The flight-to-safety bid for the dollar that is helping to undermine the yen could also be fleeting, some analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal

The problem, apart from perennial budget pressures, is that interest in election mechanics — a technical and arcane subject if ever there was one — is episodic and fleeting.

From Los Angeles Times

“All of this suggests that the Fed’s inflation worries extend beyond weathering a fleeting wave of one-off price hikes associated with tariffs and, more recently, an energy price spike,” Stanley says.

From Barron's

Related Words

• cursory
• ephemeral
• fading
• momentary
• short-lived
• sudden
• transitory