Ephemeral
[ə-fem-ər-əl]
Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Greek, 16th century
1.
Fleeting or short-lived
2.
Lasting for a single day
Examples of Ephemeral in a sentence
"My ephemeral romance lasted only through the summer, but I'll always treasure it."
"Fads are ephemeral — they're popular for a short time before the masses move on to the next big thing."
About Ephemeral
You might think of a 'jiffy' as a generally ephemeral — or short-lived, non-permanent — measurement of time, but did you know it's an actual, measurable unit? It accounts for the time it takes for light to travel the distance of a single nucleon.
Did you Know?
While ephemeral has come to describe anything fleeting or not lasting, it comes from a Greek word that specifically means "lasting a day." We now think of ephemeral things as lasting far less time, often just a passing moment.
