transient

transient adj Transient, transitory, passing, ephemeral, momentary, fugitive, fleeting, evanescent, short-lived are comparable when they mean lasting or staying only for a short time. Transient and transitory are often used as if they were interchangeable; but transient more frequently applies to what is actually short in its duration or stay

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the summer hotel does not take transient guests

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transient sorrows— Wordsworth

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an ancient folk tradition whose transient resting-place was the Bronx— Geismar

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and transitory, like its close synonym passing, to what is by its nature or essence bound to change, pass, or come to an end sooner or later

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objects of sense . . . are transitory and ephemeral— Thilly

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wise men will apply their remedies to . . . the causes of evil which are permanent, not to . . . the transitory modes in which they appear— Burke

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a passing fancy

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the confounding of the Passing with the Permanent— Austin

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Ephemeral may imply existence for only a day

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ephemeral insects

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ephemeral flowers

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In extended use, it implies marked shortness of life or of duration (as of influence or appeal)

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jazz is perishable, ephemeral, elusive— Balliett

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Momentary implies duration for a moment or a similar very short time

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a momentary irritation— Hardy

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Fugitive and fleeting apply to what passes swiftly, and is gone; but fugitive carries a stronger implication of the difficulty of catching or fixing

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oh joy! . . . that nature yet remembers what was so fugitive\—Wordsworth

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both crucifix and river . . . offered contentment and poignant, fugitive hints of another world— Styron

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and fleeting, of the impossibility of holding back or restraining from flight

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a calm and studious expression, but touched with a curious, fleeting light of triumph— Styron

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a fleeting wisdom told her that. . . one does not love another for his good character— Hervey

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Evanescent implies momentariness, but it stresses quick and complete vanishing, and it usually connotes a delicate, fragile, or airy quality

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evanescent visitations of thought and feeling . . . arising unforeseen and departing unbidden— Shelley

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all was unstable; quivering as leaves, evanescent as lightning— Hardy

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it is poetry of the most evanescent type, so tenuous in thought and feeling that only the most exquisite diction can justify its perpetuation in cold print— Grandgent

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Short-lived implies extreme brevity of life or existence often of what might be expected to last or live longer

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short-lived fame

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their satisfaction was short-lived

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trade unions have pressed their demands regardless of the fact that sellers' market conditions would be short-lived— The Scotsman

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Antonyms: perpetual

Contrasted words: *lasting, permanent, perdurable, stable, durable