Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Ephemeral |
EphemeralAdjective1. Enduring a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient beauty"; "love is transitory but at is eternal"; "fugacious blossoms". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "ephemeral" was first used: 1576. (references) |
Synonyms: EphemeralSynonyms: fugacious (adj), passing (adj), short-lived (adj), transient (adj), transitory (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Transientness | Adjective: transient, transitory, transitive; passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral; flying; Verb: fugacious, fugitive; shifting, slippery; spasmodic; instantaneous, momentaneous. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ephemeral |
| English words defined with "ephemeral": black-eyed Susan, bladder ketmia ♦ Calandrinia ♦ Ephemeral fly, Ephemeran, Ephemeric, Ephemeron, Ephemerous, Epi- ♦ flower-of-an-hour, flowers-of-an-hour, fugacious ♦ genus Calandrinia ♦ Hibiscus trionum ♦ passing, portulaca ♦ short-lived, swell ♦ transient, transitory ♦ well up. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "ephemeral": adobe flat ♦ ephemeral data, Ephemeral Fever, Ephemeral Fever Virus, Bovine, ephemeral stream, Ephemerovirus ♦ Gully erosion ♦ Rhabdoviridae Infections ♦ WIND. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "ephemeral": Ephemerous. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Ephemeral Solidarity (1993) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Ephemeral Lake Carnegie, in Western Australia, fills with water only during periods of significant rainfall. In dry years, it is reduced to a muddy marsh.Credit: NASA. |  | Ephemeral gully erosion and severe rill erosion washes young corn plants from the ground as well as topsoil and nutrients from loess soils in this western Iowa field.Credit: Lynn Betts. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Aristophanes | Mankind, fleet of life, like tree leaves, weak creatures of clay, unsubstantial as shadows, wingless, ephemeral, wretched, mortal and dreamlike. |
Denis Diderot | Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Ephemeral" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 93.90% of the time. "Ephemeral" is used about 82 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 93.9% | 77 | 37,929 |
| Noun (singular) | 4.88% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.22% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 82 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "ephemeral": ephemeral data ♦ Ephemeral Fever ♦ Ephemeral fly ♦ ephemeral stream. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "ephemeral": non-ephemeral, slightly-less-ephemeral. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
ephemeral fantasia | 85 |
ephemeral | 80 |
ephemeral fantasia through walk | 15 |
ephemeral file x | 14 |
cheat ephemeral fantasia | 8 |
ephemeral stream | 5 |
ephemeral port | 4 |
ephemeral fantasia guide | 2 |
ephemeral fantasia map | 2 |
code ephemeral fantasia | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "ephemeral"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | kalimtar (evanescent, goer, momentary, passerby, passing, pedestrian, temporal, temporary, transitional, transitive, transitory, unabiding), jetëshkurtër (passing, short lived, transitory), fluturak (fleeting, flying, volant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | سريع الزوال (evanescent, flighty, fragile, fugacious, transient, transitory, volatile), عابر (fleeting, in transit, parlous, passing, precarious, sneak, stealthy, tenuous, transient, transitory), شىء سريع الزوال, دائم يوما واحد فقط. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | краткотраен (deciduous, fleeting, fugacious, momentary, perishable, rapid, short, transitory, unabiding), ефимерен, еднодневен (diurnal). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 短暂 (Evanescent, momentary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | efemérní, prchavý (elusive, elusory, fleeting, fragile, fugitive, volatile), pomíjející (perishable, transitory), jepièí. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | efemeriske data (ephemeral data, ephemeris data), efemeralfeber (ephemeral fever), vandloeb udtoerret dele af aaret (ephemeral stream), vandløb udtørret dele af året (ephemeral stream, intermittent stream), omgangssyge (ephemeral fever), éndagsfeber (ephemeral fever). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | ephemera (ephemeral fever), efemere data (ephemeral data, ephemeris data), regenrivier (ephemeral stream, intermittent stream), febris herpetica (ephemeral fever), febris ephemerica (ephemeral fever), febricula (ephemeral fever). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | زودگذر (Fleet, Frail, Glancing, Glint, Light, Memnetary, Perishable, Shadowy, Temporary, Transient, Transitory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | lyhytaikainen tallenus (ephemeral fixation), lyhytaikainen puro (ephemeral stream), lyhytaikainen paikkatieto (ephemeral data, ephemeris data), ajoittainen vesireitti (ephemeral stream, intermittent stream), ajoittainen joki (ephemeral stream, intermittent stream). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | éphémère (ephemera). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | flüchtig (brief, casual, cursorily, cursory, desultory, elusive, fleeting, fleetingly, flighty, fugitive, fugitively, momentary, non-permanent, passing, perfunctory, quick, sketchily, sketchy, slapdash, slight, summarily, volatile, volatilely, voltile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | εφημέριοσ (chaplain, curare, parson, rector, vicar), εφήμεροσ (evanescent, passing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | קיקיו י, חלוף (exchange, permutation, replacement, reverse, variation), חולף (evanescent, fleeting, fugitive, passing, transient, transitory), ארעי (accidental, casual, episodic, impermanent, interim, occasional, pro tempore, provisional, temporary), כל" (betrothed, bride, daughter in law, temporal, transitory), בן יומו. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | tiszavirág életű, röpke (caducous, flighty, flitting, flying). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | lekas berlalu. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | effimero (transient), passeggero (fare, passenger, passing, voyager), caduco (caducous, frail). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 泡沫 (bubble on surface of liquid, transient). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | うたかた (bubble on surface of liquid, transient), ほうまつてき (fleeting, like a bubble on liquid, passing, transient), ほうまつ (bubble on surface of liquid, transient), せつなてき (transitory), はかない (empty, fickle, fleeting, miserable, momentary, short-lived, transient, vain). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | neuveayn (fluid, impermanent, non-durable, passing, short-lived, temporary, transient, transitory), giare-heiltagh (evanescent, fleeting, short-lived). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ephemeralay efêmero (deciduous, dram, fleeting, frail, fuggy, momentary, perishable, perishing, transient, transitory), passageiro (fade, fare, fleet, momentary, passenger, passing, perfunctory, rider, temporary, transient, transitional, transitory, wayfarer), inseto efemeróptero. (various references) efemer (diurnal, evanescent, fleeting, fugitive, fungous, momentary, passing, short lived, temporary, transient), vremelnic (fleeting, temporal, temporarily, temporary, transient, transitory). (various references) эфемерный. (various references) efemeran. (various references) efímero (fleeting, perishable, short lived). (various references) efemär, kortlivad (fugacious, short lived), dagsländelik. (various references) พืชหรือแมลงที่มีอายุสั้น, ซึ่งมีอายุสั้น. (various references) kısa ömürlü (fugacious, shortlived), geçici (ad interim, Band aid, casual, curable, deciduous, extrinsic, fading, flying, fortuitous, fugacious, impermanent, interim, interlocutory, jury, makeshift, momentary, palliative, passing, pro forma, provisional, provisory, provo, stopgap, temporal, temporary, tentative, transient, transitory, volatile), fani (earth-born, earthling, evanescent, fading, fleet, fleeting, transient, transitory). (various references) одноденний, недовговічний (evanescent, fugitive, non-durable, short lived), ефемерний (aerial, aeriform, transitory). (various references) sớm nở tối t n (ephemerous), sớm chết (ephemerous), phù du (ephemerous, fugacious, fugitive), chóng t n (ephemerous, fugacious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | ephemeros. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ephemeral": ephemeralities, ephemerality, ephemerally, ephemerals. (additional references) | |
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"Ephemeral" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: efemera, efemeral, efemmeral, effemeral, emphemeral, epemeral, ephemere, ephemerel, ephemerial, ephemerol, ephemira, ephemiral, ephemoral, ephemra, ephemral, epheneral, ephenmeral, epheremal, ephermeal, ephermeral, ephimera, ephimeral, ephmera, ephmeral, phemeral. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ephemeral" (pronounced efe"merul) |
| 6 | -f e" m er u l | femoral. |
| 4 | -m er u l | admiral, humoral, numeral. |
| 3 | -er u l | agricultural, architectural, behavioral, bilateral, collateral, Corporal, countercultural, cultural, doctoral, doggerel, electoral, federal, funeral, Gen, general, guttural, horticultural, inaugural, intercultural, lateral, liberal, literal, littoral, mackerel, mayoral, mineral, multicultural, multilateral, natural, neoliberal, nomenclatural, nonagricultural, pastoral, pectoral, peripheral, pickerel, postdoctoral, prefectural, procedural, scriptural, sculptural, sectoral, structural, supernatural, temporal, trilateral, unilateral, unnatural, visceral. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-e-e-h-l-m-p-r" | |
-1 letter: ephemera. | |
-2 letters: empaler, premeal. | |
-3 letters: ampere, ampler, empale, hamper, hareem, healer, heeler, helper, hermae, leaper, palmer, peeler, reheel, repeal. | |
-4 letters: aleph, almeh, ameer, ample, emeer, haler, harem, hemal, herma, lamer, laree, leper, maple, melee, merle, paler, parle, pearl, perea, ralph, ramee, raphe, realm, rehem, remap, repel. | |
-5 letters: ahem, alee, alme, aper, earl, epee, epha, haem. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-e-e-h-l-m-p-r" | |
+1 letter: ephemerals. | |
+2 letters: ephemerally, pamphleteer. | |
+3 letters: ephemerality, pamphleteers. | |
+4 letters: pamphleteered. | |
+5 letters: cephalometries, ephemeralities, pamphleteering, plasmaphereses. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)45 70 68 65 6D 65 72 61 6C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references). .--. .... . -- . .-. .- .-.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000101 01110000 01101000 01100101 01101101 01100101 01110010 01100001 01101100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)E p h e m e r a l |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0045 0070 0068 0065 006D 0065 0072 0061 006C |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)398274717971846778 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
