transient

Pluraltransients

1. 1
   adjective

   Lasting only a short time; passing away with time, or occurring only briefly or now and then rather than persistently.

   Fame on social media is transient, and many viral stars are forgotten within a year.

   The medicine can cause a transient headache that clears up within an hour.

   Similartemporary, brief, fleeting, short-lived, passing

   Oppositepermanent, lasting, persistent, enduring

   Note

   Late Latin gave English transiēns, "passing over," the present participle of transire, "to go over, to pass," so whatever is transient is caught in the act of passing. Poets have leaned on that: Milton writes of this transient world in Paradise Lost (1667), and Tennyson in In Memoriam sets transient form against a deep, unchanging self. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • English transient derives from Late Latin transiēns, the present participle of transire, meaning 'to go over, to pass'. en.wiktionary.org
   • Transiēns means 'passing over'. en.wiktionary.org
   • John Milton uses 'this transient World' in Paradise Lost, in Adam's speech. gutenberg.org
   • Paradise Lost was first published in 1667. gutenberg.org
   • Tennyson's In Memoriam contrasts transient form with an underlying, unchanged 'deep self'; the passage poses this as a question about personified sorrow. uwyo.edu
2. 2
   staying brieflyadjective

   Staying only briefly while passing through, or being handed on from person to person.

   The lake is a stopover for transient geese on their way south.

   The motel depends on transient guests driving the interstate rather than on long-term tenants.

   Similarpassing, temporary

   Oppositepermanent, resident

3. 3
   nouncountable

   Something short-lived or passing; especially a brief phenomenon such as a sudden surge of electric current or a short-lived event in the sky.

   A lightning strike nearby sent a transient through the building's wiring.

   Surge protectors clamp transients before they can reach sensitive electronics.

   Similarsurge, spike

   Note

   In power and electronics work the spike may be in voltage as well as current, and switching a motor on or off is a common cause alongside lightning. Brief as they are, transients can damage electronics, which is why snubber circuits and surge protectors are built to absorb them. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • Electrical transients can involve voltage as well as current. acquia.ladwp.com
   • Switching motors on or off commonly causes transients. eaton.com
   • Lightning also causes transients. technav.ieee.org
   • Transients can damage electronic equipment. eaton.com
   • Snubber circuits absorb energy associated with electrical transients. e2e.ti.com
   • Surge protectors absorb surge energy to protect connected equipment. eaton.com
4. 4
   homeless personnouncountable

   A homeless person.

   A transient was asleep in the doorway of the closed bank, wrapped in a blanket.

   Police cleared a camp of transients from under the overpass.

   UsageCommon in police and news reports; many writers prefer homeless person, which sounds less cold.

   Similarvagrant, drifter, tramp

5. 5
   sound burstnouncountable

   In audio, a very brief, relatively loud, non-repeating signal in a waveform, such as the attack of a snare drum.

   The compressor flattened the transients, and the drums lost much of their punch.

   A good condenser microphone captures the sharp transient of a plucked guitar string.

   Note

   Sound engineers hear a note as an attack followed by a sustain, and the transient is the attack: the click of a pick, the crack of a snare, the consonant at the front of a sung word. Much of a sound's punch and clarity lives there, so compressors and transient shapers are used to soften or sharpen it. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • A transient is the initial attack, illustrated by pick noise, a snare hit and vocal consonants. izotope.com
   • Transient attacks contribute to punch and clarity. izotope.com
   • Compressors can shape transient attacks. izotope.com
   • Transient shapers can strengthen or soften attacks. s3.amazonaws.com
6. 6
   nouncountable

   A person who stays in a place only briefly while passing through, such as a traveler or a migrant worker.

   In harvest season the valley fills with transients who pick fruit for a few weeks and move on.

   Every transient who stopped at the diner had a story about the road ahead.

   Similarmigrant, drifter, itinerant, traveler

   Oppositeresident, local

   Note

   Its natural opposite is locals: in Janette Turner Hospital's Oyster (1996), a town has more transients than locals within a few months, and the imbalance seems morally wrong. The word names people by their passing, not their purpose, so the tourist, the seasonal picker and the drifter all fit; context decides which is meant. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Janette Turner Hospital wrote Oyster. en.wikipedia.org
   • The novel describes transients outnumbering locals within a few months, with the imbalance seeming morally wrong. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   fading (physics)adjective

   In physics, decaying over time, especially exponentially.

   After the switch closes, the transient current falls off exponentially toward zero.

   Once the transient part of the response dies out, only the steady oscillation remains.

   Oppositesteady

   Note

   Physicists and engineers split a system's response into two parts: the transient part, which dies away, and the steady state, which is what remains afterward. The decay is typically exponential and set by a time constant, so the longer the constant, the longer the transient part lingers. The brief disturbance itself is a transient. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • A system's response can be divided into a transient component that decays and a steady-state component that remains. faculty.washington.edu
   • Exponential decay governed by a time constant is typical of transient responses; a larger time constant means slower decay. web.stanford.edu

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