EPHEMERAL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ephemeral

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/ɪfˈɛmərəl/ Listen

adjective

Ephemeral adj.

Beginning and ending in a day; existing only, or no longer than, a day; diurnal; as, an ephemeral flower.

Short-lived; existing or continuing for a short time only. "Ephemeral popularity." "Sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal, efficacy."

Ephemeral fly (Zoöl.), 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 larvae are aquatic; called also day fly and May fly.

noun

Ephemeral n. Anything lasting but a day, or a brief time; an ephemeral plant, insect, etc.

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Etymology of 'Ephemeral'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ephemeral" Quotes from Famous Books

... parties, rivals for favour and the power derived from favour. The bishops of each country would have had national interests controlling their actions. The Teuton invaders were without power of cohesion, without fraternal affection for each other; their ephemeral territories were in a state of perpetual fluctuation. The bishops locally situated in these changing districts would have been themselves divided. In fact, the Arian bishops had no common centre. They were the nominees and partisans of their several ...

— The Formation of Christendom, Volume VI - The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I • Thomas W. (Thomas William) Allies

... of British Columbia, amounting to over two million dollars; the building of a road from the Atlantic to the Pacific within a stipulated time. The alliance, however, contained more advantage than the ephemeral assistance of making a road or the assumption of a debt, for with confederation came the abolition of the "one-man system of government" and in its place a responsible one, with freedom of action for enterprise, legislation to encourage development, and assist budding industries; ...

— Shadow and Light - An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century • Mifflin Wistar Gibbs

... He looked back upon the episode with nausea—the inevitable psychological reaction—marvelling at himself that until yesterday he should have found her so desirable, and cursing himself that for the sake of that ephemeral and worthless gratification he should seriously have imperilled his chances of winning Mademoiselle de Kercadiou to wife. There is, after all, nothing very extraordinary in his frame of mind, so that I need not elaborate it further. It resulted from the ...

— Scaramouche - A Romance of the French Revolution • Rafael Sabatini

... Music is intangible and ephemeral, but it comes from the home world of the spirit and though so fleeting it is recognized by the spirit as a soul-speech fresh from the celestial realms, an echo from the home whence we are now exiled, and therefore it touches a cord in our being, regardless of whether we realize ...

— The Rosicrucian Mysteries • Max Heindel

... answered Aylmer,—"pluck it, and inhale its brief perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments and leave nothing save its brown seed vessels; but thence may be perpetuated a race as ephemeral as itself." ...

— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne

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