transitory
Americanadjective
-
not lasting, enduring, permanent, or eternal.
-
lasting only a short time; brief; short-lived; temporary.
- Antonyms:
- permanent
adjective
Related Words
See temporary.
Other Word Forms
- transitorily adverb
- transitoriness noun
- untransitorily adverb
- untransitoriness noun
- untransitory adjective
Etymology
Origin of transitory
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English transitorie, from Late Latin trānsitōrius “fleeting” ( transit, -tory 1 ); replacing Middle English transitoire, from Middle French, from Late Latin, as above
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.
Yet what Fed officials don’t want is to “make the transitory mistake again,” he said.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 24, 2026
“If this ends up being another commodity shock around the world, do we really want to do another transitory 2.0?”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
“For now, the trend is clearly negative, but it should be transitory, assuming the Iran conflict is resolved in weeks and not months,” said Louis Navellier of Navellier Calculated Investing.
From Barron's • Mar. 4, 2026
“I knew that this was going to be transitory type of situation, that it was going to change quickly,” says De la Peña, co-director on the film with Rory Mitchell.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026
Ishmael, a native, could not understand how such transitory and accidental occurrences gained the upper hand in their view of things.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
