ephemeral.

Existing or remaining effective for only a short time.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• ephemeral beauty
• ephemeral fame

On the page

Ephemeral beauty appeared in the frost before the first sunbeam.

Her ephemeral fame left one photograph in the station archive.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Comparative more ephemeral; superlative most ephemeral where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.