Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Existing or lasting only a short time; short-lived or temporary: "the disorder of his life: the succession of cities, of transitory loves” ( Carson McCullers).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Passing without continuing; lasting only a short time; unstable and fleeting; speedily vanishing.
- Occurring or done in passing; cursory.
- Synonyms Fleeting, etc. (see transient), temporary, evanescent, ephemeral, momentary, short-lived.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Continuing only for a short time; not enduring; fleeting; evanescent.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lasting a very short time
Etymologies
- transit + -ory. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English transitorie, from Old French transitoire, from Late Latin trānsitōrius, from Latin, having a passageway, from trānsitus, passage; see transit. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Last month, Census workers counted people in "transitory places," from RV parks and marinas to circuses and campgrounds.”
“The count of people in "transitory places" is underway in RV parks, campgrounds and marinas.”
“Don't panic under short-term transitory developments.”
“In its review of Obama's first 100 days, Amnesty International singled out "the possibility of the CIA abducting and detaining people in 'short-term transitory' facilities" as an unacceptable loophole.”
“This came from an otherwise laudable announcement a month ago by the CIA's new director, Leon Panetta, in which Panetta stated, "CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites and has proposed a plan to decommission the remaining sites," but added that the agency "retains the authority to detain individuals on a short-term transitory basis.”
“CIA retains the authority to detain individuals on a short-term transitory basis.”
“He says that CIA officers will continue to conduct interrogations, and that the agency retains the authority to hold detainees "on a short-term transitory basis.”
The Wall Street Journal: CIA Bans Interrogations by Outside Contractors
“I'll give you five bucks if he actually uses the word transitory today.”
“Oh, he's grown Cautiously rich, and will venture none of his substantiall stock in transitory Traffick.”
“CIA detains individuals on "a short-term transitory basis".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘transitory’.
-
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...
-
EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
-
gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
-
phil vocab 3
genocide, superfluous, warfare, indissoluble, sentient, confound, pernicious, dispose, render, amiable, paradox, puritanical and 36 more...
-
Out of Book Words
commiserate, equanimity, dulcet, cursory, diffident, profligate, egregious, precocious, dissemble, aggregate, efficacy, ingenuous and 100 more...
-
quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
-
colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
-
Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
-
Resource
katabatic, clerestory, haslet, alpenglow, purl, scumble, jessant, spavined, wayworn, creach, dottle, solferino and 165 more...
-
Fickle/Fleeting/Fractured
fleeting, transient, evanescent, ephemeral, pro tem, pro tempore, transitory, temporal, volatile, fugacious, fickle, capricious and 50 more...
-
From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
-
GRE
juncture, keen, kindle, kinetic, knell, kudos, lament, lampoon, languid, lapidary, larceny, largess and 228 more...
-
Verbal Advantage List
ostensible, paraphrase, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 487 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for transitory.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.