ephemeral

ephemeral
    adj 1: lasting a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of
           childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient
           beauty"; "love is transitory but it is eternal";
           "fugacious blossoms" [syn: {ephemeral}, {passing},
           {short-lived}, {transient}, {transitory}, {fugacious}]
    n 1: anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a
         day in its winged form [syn: {ephemeron}, {ephemeral}]
    

Ephemeral \E*phem"er*al\, a.
   1. Beginning and ending in a day; existing only, or no longer
      than, a day; diurnal; as, an ephemeral flower.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Short-lived; existing or continuing for a short time only.
      "Ephemeral popularity." --V. Knox.
      [1913 Webster]

            Sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal,
            efficacy.                             --Sir J.
                                                  Stephen.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Ephemeral fly} (Zo["o]l.), 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 larv[ae] are aquatic; -- called also {day
      fly} and {May fly}.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Ephemeral \E*phem"er*al\, n.
   Anything lasting but a day, or a brief time; an ephemeral
   plant, insect, etc.
   [1913 Webster]
    

47 Moby Thesaurus words for "ephemeral":
      brief, brittle, capricious, changeable, corruptible, deciduous,
      dying, episodic, evanescent, evergreen, fading, fickle, fleeting,
      flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail, fugacious,
      fugitive, half-hardy, hardy, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive,
      inconstant, insubstantial, momentary, mortal, mutable, nondurable,
      nonpermanent, passing, perennial, perishable, short, short-lived,
      subject to death, temporal, temporary, transient, transitive,
      transitory, undurable, unenduring, unstable, volatile