ephemeral
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Lasting for a very short time.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihfehmeruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈfɛmɚəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Lasting for a short period of time.
biology
Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.
noun
Something which lasts for a short period of time.
Anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Lasting for a short period of time.
Used this way, ephemeral is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Formal
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Usage note
Comfortable in writing and prepared speech; in casual conversation a shorter everyday word usually sounds more natural.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Word Forms
Ephemeral · Ephemerally · Ephemerality
Where This Word Comes From
From Greek 'ephemeros', meaning lasting only a day, 'epi' (on) plus 'hemera' (day).
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.