Transitory
adjective
Not permanent, lasting for a short time.
The snow is transitory and will melt by tomorrow.
Often appears as...
- transitory phase
- transitory period
adjective
Changing often, not staying the same.
Teenagers often have transitory interests.
Often appears as...
- transitory feelings
- transitory state
adjective
Passing quickly into and out of existence.
A rainbow is a transitory event.
Often appears as...
- transitory event
- transitory moment
adjective
Not permanent, lasting for a short time.
The snow is transitory and will melt by tomorrow.
Often appears as...
- transitory phase
- transitory period
adjective
Changing often, not staying the same.
Teenagers often have transitory interests.
Often appears as...
- transitory feelings
- transitory state
adjective
Passing quickly into and out of existence.
A rainbow is a transitory event.
Often appears as...
- transitory event
- transitory moment
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Temporary State
Use 'transitory' to describe something that won't last long and is not a fixed condition.
Their happiness was transitory, as the news they received later changed everything.
Pro Tip 2/3No Lasting Effect
'Transitory' implies that the impact of the event or condition will not have lasting effects.
The economic downturn was seen as transitory, with recovery expected soon.
Pro Tip 3/3Emphasizing Duration
Stress the briefness of an event by describing it as 'transitory', especially to contrast with longer states.
Fortunately, the discomfort from the procedure is transitory.
Compare with
briefephemeralevanescentfleetwideimpermanentmomentarypasstemporary
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Video examples
Isaac Lidsky: What...
I pieced together fragmented, transitory images, consciously analyzed the clues, searched for some logic in my crumbling kaleidoscope, until I saw nothing at all. I learned that what we see is not universal truth.
Video examples
Chasing Antarctic Ice PIPE...
and we'll see what the cameras recorded about the changes in these glacial landscapes this is a really important historical documents that records a landscape that is transitory that is changing and in
Video examples
Isaac Lidsky: What...
I pieced together fragmented, transitory images, consciously analyzed the clues, searched for some logic in my crumbling kaleidoscope, until I saw nothing at all. I learned that what we see is not universal truth.
Video examples
Chasing Antarctic Ice PIPE...
and we'll see what the cameras recorded about the changes in these glacial landscapes this is a really important historical documents that records a landscape that is transitory that is changing and in
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Cass McCombs
American Musician
I think I have some very meaningful relationships with people; we all do. At the same time, I recognize that everyone is following their own heart; there's been people who have left my life, and I don't have a problem with that. This is a transitory world; we're all spirits just looking for love and finding it and holding on.
Quote examples
Beeban Kidron
English Director
Everything a teenager does, says or looks at, however transitory, contributes to an aggregated virtual self that might one day have consequences for its real-life counterpart. How many of us would keep all our relationships and reputations intact if every transgression, mistake or youthful folly was held in public view?
Quote examples
Elaine Pagels
American Historian
Orthodox theologians insisted that the rest of humankind were only transitory creatures, lost in sin - a view that would support what would become their dominant teaching about salvation, offered only through Christ, and, in particular, through the church they claimed to represent.
Quote examples
Denis Lawson
Scottish Actor
In my professional life, when I started I felt it was very transitory. You meet people, you have to make this very intense connection and then you might not see them for two years. It was kind of odd and when I started out I didn't like it.
Quote examples
Dorothea Dix
American Activist
I have little taste for fashionable dissipations, cards, and dancing; the theatre and tea parties are my aversion, and I look with little envy on those who find their enjoyment in such transitory delights, if delights they may be called.
Quote examples
Halle Berry
American Actress
Let me tell you something - being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.
Quote examples
Jean Giraudoux
French Dramatist
A golf course is the epitome of all that is purely transitory in the universe; a space not to dwell in, but to get over as quickly as possible.
Quote examples
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
American Author
The individual man is transitory, but the pulse of life and of growth goes on after he is gone, buried under a wreath of magnolia leaves.
Quote examples
William Dunbar
Scottish Poet
Our pleasance here is all vain glory, This false world is but transitory.
Quote examples
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German Writer
All things are only transitory.
Quote examples
Cass McCombs
American Musician
I think I have some very meaningful relationships with people; we all do. At the same time, I recognize that everyone is following their own heart; there's been people who have left my life, and I don't have a problem with that. This is a transitory world; we're all spirits just looking for love and finding it and holding on.
Quote examples
Beeban Kidron
English Director
Everything a teenager does, says or looks at, however transitory, contributes to an aggregated virtual self that might one day have consequences for its real-life counterpart. How many of us would keep all our relationships and reputations intact if every transgression, mistake or youthful folly was held in public view?
Quote examples
Elaine Pagels
American Historian
Orthodox theologians insisted that the rest of humankind were only transitory creatures, lost in sin - a view that would support what would become their dominant teaching about salvation, offered only through Christ, and, in particular, through the church they claimed to represent.
Quote examples
Denis Lawson
Scottish Actor
In my professional life, when I started I felt it was very transitory. You meet people, you have to make this very intense connection and then you might not see them for two years. It was kind of odd and when I started out I didn't like it.
Quote examples
Dorothea Dix
American Activist
I have little taste for fashionable dissipations, cards, and dancing; the theatre and tea parties are my aversion, and I look with little envy on those who find their enjoyment in such transitory delights, if delights they may be called.
Quote examples
Halle Berry
American Actress
Let me tell you something - being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.
Quote examples
Jean Giraudoux
French Dramatist
A golf course is the epitome of all that is purely transitory in the universe; a space not to dwell in, but to get over as quickly as possible.
Quote examples
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
American Author
The individual man is transitory, but the pulse of life and of growth goes on after he is gone, buried under a wreath of magnolia leaves.
Quote examples
William Dunbar
Scottish Poet
Our pleasance here is all vain glory, This false world is but transitory.
Quote examples
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German Writer
All things are only transitory.
Example 1 of 10
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