Words That Mean Short-lived and Temporary
A cluster the GRE is fond of, because the words are near-identical and the connotations are not: ephemeral is beautiful and brief, transient is merely passing through.
6 words
- Ephemeralnoun
anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
- Evanescentadjective
tending to vanish like vapor
- Provisionaladjective
under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon
- Tentativeadjective
under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon
- Transientnoun
(physics) a short-lived oscillation in a system caused by a sudden change of voltage or current or load
- Volatilenoun
a volatile substance; a substance that changes readily from solid or liquid to a vapor
Study these against
A word’s meaning sharpens against its opposite. These sets are the ones worth holding beside short-lived and temporary.