Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Passing with time; transitory: "the transient beauty of youth” ( Lydia M. Child).
- adj. Remaining in a place only a brief time: transient laborers.
- adj. Physics Decaying with time, especially as a simple exponential function of time.
- n. One that is transient, especially a hotel guest or boarder who stays for only a brief time.
- n. Physics A transient phenomenon or property, especially a transient electric current.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Passing across, as from one thing or person to another; communicated.
- Passing with time; of short duration; not permanent; not lasting or durable; temporary; as, a transient impression.
- Hasty; momentary; passing: as, a transient glance of a landscape.
- In music, intermediate—that is, serving as a connective, but unessential in itself: as, a transient chord, modulation, or note. Compare passing-note.
- SynonymsTransient, Transitory, Fleeting. Strictly, transient marks the fact that a thing soon passes or will soon pass away: as, a transient impression; a transient shadow. Transitory indicates that lack of permanence is in the nature of the thing; as, transitory pleasure; this transitory life. Fleeting is by figure a stronger word than transient, though in the same line of meaning. See list under transitory.
- n. One who or that which is temporary, passing, or not permanent.
- n. Specifically A transient gruest.
Wiktionary
- adj. Passing or disappearing with time; transitory.
- adj. Remaining for only a brief time.
- adj. physics Decaying with time, especially exponentially.
- adj. mathematics having a positive probability of being left and never being visited again.
- adj. Occasional; isolated; one-off; individual.
- adj. Passing through; passing from one person to another.
- adj. philosophy Operating beyond itself; having an external effect.
- n. Something which is transient.
- n. physics A transient phenomenon, especially an electric current; a very brief surge.
- n. acoustics A relatively loud, non-repeating signal in an audio waveform which occurs very quickly, such as the attack of a snare drum.
- n. A person who passes through a place for a short time; a traveller; a migrant worker
- n. An unhoused person
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Passing before the sight or perception, or, as it were, moving over or across a space or scene viewed, and then disappearing; hence, of short duration; not permanent; not lasting or durable; not stationary; passing; fleeting; brief; transitory.
- adj. Hasty; momentary; imperfect; brief.
- adj. Colloq. U. S. Staying for a short time; not regular or permanent.
- n. That which remains but for a brief time.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of a mental act; causing effects outside the mind
- adj. lasting a very short time
- n. (physics) a short-lived oscillation in a system caused by a sudden change of voltage or current or load
- n. one who stays for only a short time
Etymologies
- From stem of Latin transiens, present participle of transire ("to go over, to pass") (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of Latin trānsiēns, trānseunt-, present participle of trānsīre, to go over : trāns-, over; see trans- + īre, to go. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Getting a saved transient is just like getting an option: get_transient ($transient);”
“$transient the unique slug used while saving the transient with set_transient ().”
“Most of what you print is what we call transient print.”
“The blood vessels of the heart, the neck, the brain, they're all very similar, so you build up plaques in different ways and it is possible, one cause of seizure is stroke or even what we call transient ischemic attack, a stroke that's in development but then the body can clear a blood vessel blockage.”
“And it is possible one cause of seizure is stroke or even what we call a transient ischemic attack, a stroke that's in development, but then the body can clear a blood vessel blockage.”
“We'd come in from the coolness of the outer system, chasing what they described as a transient event, a hole in space time.”
“Transumerism, coming from the term transient, it's more 'I don't want to be attached to the possession' more 'I'm attached to the experiences,'"said Alexandra Aguirre Rodriguez, assistant marketing professor at Florida International University.”
“Nearly everyone experiences a few nights of tossing and turning here and there, what is known as transient insomnia.”
“The ensuing transient is ignored, possibly because the effects are very hard to calculate.”
Roll Over, Ricardo, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘transient’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Impressionism
Words that describe the art of the impressionist era.
seascapes, landscapes, modern, impression, impressionist, contemporary, flicker, sensation, modernity, perceived, perceiving, momentary and 142 more...
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Psychology
Chapter 1
rigorous, occurrence, maze, divers, intellectual, expansion, all in all, sensation, introspection, radical, orientation, nurture and 174 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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trans-
across or beyond; on or to the other side; through; going beyond
transcendent, transform, transonic, transalpine, transcontinental, transparent, transparency, transportation, transport, transatlantic, transfer, translate and 30 more...
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on the road again
waifs and estrays, errant, stray, prodigal, mendicant, tripper, trekker, trouper, tourist, adventurer, jet-setter, voyager and 59 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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Wharton, Edith. Age of Innocence. 1920
A list of difficult words for L2-12 learners.
Faust, erection, metropolitan, splendor, shabby, conservatives, cherished, inconvenient, clung, acoustics, coupe, scramble and 261 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
acute, aversion, cogent, evince, gist, hostile, inevitable, intrinsic, jettison, lucrative, paramount, prevalent and 8 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for transient.

kingparton He had a piano, a few books: picked up transient acquaintances of a day, week, or month in the stream of travellers from all Europe.
Joseph Conrad, "Il Conde" Jul 24, 2011