temporarily
Americanadverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of temporarily
Explanation
Temporarily describes something that happens for a limited amount of time. If you agree to watch your friend's dog temporarily, you'll be surprised if it turns out that your friend will be in France for at least two years. Temporarily is the adverbial form of "temporary," which comes from the Latin word tempus, meaning time. Something done temporarily is supposed to be concluded in a finite amount of time. If your car is temporarily out of commission, you expect that you will be able to fix it and get it back on the road. If you drop the word temporarily from that sentence, your car may be a goner.
Vocabulary lists containing temporarily
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temp
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
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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.
In healthy immune cells, BCL6 attaches to DNA and temporarily shuts down genes that would normally stop cell growth or initiate cell death.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
The site, owned by the Turkish group Yildirim, was temporarily shut.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Plus, the U.S. will temporarily allow highway sales of dyed diesel, and Persian Gulf oil producers pay millions to move crude.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
A board majority also defeated a proposal to let school communities or a principal decide if an officer should be stationed at a high school — either permanently or temporarily.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The fight with his mom and Ricky temporarily masked the bottomless anxiety he always felt.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
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.
