# ephemeral

Pronunciation: say "e-FEM-uh-rul" /ɛˈfɛ.mə.ɹəl/

## Adjective

1. Lasting for only a very short time; of a flower, insect, or other living thing, living or lasting for a day or a few days.
   - Simple: Lasting only a very short time, sometimes only one day.
   - _Her fame proved ephemeral, and within a year hardly anyone remembered her name._
   - _Critics dismissed the craze as an ephemeral fashion that would be forgotten by next summer._

## Noun

2. A thing that lasts or exists for only a short period of time.
   - Simple: Something that lasts only a short time.
   - _A desert ephemeral can sprout, flower, and drop its seeds within a few weeks of a good rain._
   - _Next to the great classics, most bestsellers are ephemerals, read for a season and then forgotten._

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Of a stream, lake, or other body of water: usually dry, but holding water for brief periods during and after precipitation.

## Origin

Two Ancient Greek words, ἐπί (epí, "on") and ἡμέρα (hēméra, "day"), combined to make ἐφημέριος (ephēmérios), with senses such as "of, for, or during the day" and "lasting only a day, short-lived, temporary." The form people used more often, ἐφήμερος (ephḗmeros), became New Latin ephemerus, the source of the English word.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ephemeral (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).