[syn: ephemeral, passing, short-lived, transient, transitory, fugacious]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ephemeral \E*phem"er*al\, a.
1. Beginning and ending in a day; existing only, or no longer
than, a day; diurnal; as, an ephemeral flower.
[1913 Webster]
2. Short-lived; existing or continuing for a short time only.
"Ephemeral popularity." --V. Knox.
[1913 Webster]
Sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal,
efficacy. --Sir J.
Stephen.
[1913 Webster]
Ephemeral fly (Zo["o]l.), one of a group of neuropterous
insects, belonging to the genus Ephemera and many allied
genera, which live in the adult or winged state only for a
short time. The larv[ae] are aquatic; -- called also day
fly and May fly.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ephemeral \E*phem"er*al\, n.
Anything lasting but a day, or a brief time; an ephemeral
plant, insect, etc.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
ephemeral
adj 1: lasting a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of
childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient
beauty"; "love is transitory but it is eternal";
"fugacious blossoms" [syn: ephemeral, passing,
short-lived, transient, transitory, fugacious]
n 1: anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a
day in its winged form [syn: ephemeron, ephemeral]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
47 Moby Thesaurus words for "ephemeral":
brief, brittle, capricious, changeable, corruptible, deciduous,
dying, episodic, evanescent, evergreen, fading, fickle, fleeting,
flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail, fugacious,
fugitive, half-hardy, hardy, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive,
inconstant, insubstantial, momentary, mortal, mutable, nondurable,
nonpermanent, passing, perennial, perishable, short, short-lived,
subject to death, temporal, temporary, transient, transitive,
transitory, undurable, unenduring, unstable, volatile