ephemeralness


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e·phem·er·al

(ĭ-fĕm′ər-əl)
adj.
1. Lasting for a markedly brief time: "There remain some truths too ephemeral to be captured in the cold pages of a court transcript" (Irving R. Kaufman).
2. Having a short lifespan or a short annual period of aboveground growth. Used especially of plants.
n.
Something, especially a plant, that is ephemeral.
[From Greek ephēmeros : ep-, epi-, epi- + hēmerā, day.]
e·phem′er·al′i·ty, e·phem′er·al·ness n.
e·phem′er·al·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun 1. ephemeralness - the property of lasting for a very short time
transience, transiency, transitoriness - an impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
The tomb of the tragic victims, still visible in the hallowed grounds of South Arthurlie Church, is poignantly inscribed with the epitaph: 'Truly, as the Lord liveth, there is but a step between me and death.' The grey gravestone, in the land of the giants and cosmic catastrophe, is a rocky reminder that the ephemeralness of human life is but a drop in the ocean of eternity.
A tragedy waiting to happen
A realization of the ephemeralness of power, and of life itself.
Why I'll vote Buhari again and again, by Femi Adesina
In this connection, Warner also emphasized that this text, for all its saturation with a sense of indeterminacy, also produces in the reader a sense of wholeness (what we referred to as the effect of resonance) as well as a sense of human life's ephemeralness and paradoxical magnificence:
Over the edge: Virginia Woolf's price for literary immortality

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