transience

American  

[tran-shuhns, -zhuhns, -zee-uhns] / ˈtræn ʃəns, -ʒəns, -zi əns /

Sometimes transiency

noun

1. transient state or quality.

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Other Word Forms

• nontransience noun
• nontransiency noun

Etymology

Origin of transience

First recorded in 1735–45; transi(ent) + -ence

Explanation

If your grandmother is always talking about how quickly the years go by, she is focused on life's transience, or briefness. Summer's quality of seeming to be over just as it's started can be described as transience — anything that feels impossibly brief has that same attribute. People most often use the noun transience when they're talking about good things, like beautiful days, a nice life, or a fun vacation, that seem to be over in an instant. The word comes from the Latin transiens, "passing over or away."

Example Sentences

These days, the transience of “Spiral Jetty” reads like an early warning of climate chaos.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 15, 2026

Then, with no warning, Amélie’s grandmother dies, and directors Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang introduce a layer of transience that subtly begins to play with Amélie’s idea that everything is predetermined.

From Salon • Nov. 5, 2025

The chair indicates “throne,” the austere clock adds a symbolic note of sober timeliness, as well as intimating life’s inevitable transience.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 17, 2024

The instrumental music is often skeletal, with an ensemble consisting almost entirely of plucked instruments, their quick decays a reminder of transience.

From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2024

But I still remember what she said to me about my transience in Tobias’s life.

From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth

Related Words

• agitation
• anxiety
• disquiet
• edginess
• ferment
• instability
• jitters
• nervousness
• turbulence
• turmoil
• uneasiness
• unrest